After completing school and graduating from high school, Heidrun Heidecke studied at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, whereupon she worked as a teacher for 13 years. After her involvement in politics, she was elected to the board of the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) on November 8, 1998. In the meantime, she worked at BUND for various projects and as a nature conservation coordinator. She received her doctorate in 2004 at the University of Kassel with a thesis on comparative considerations of planning and innovation processes in the design of post-lignite mining landscapes.