Ann Arvin received her undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Brown University in 1966. She earned her M.A. in Philosophy from Brandeis University. Arvin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's medical school in 1972, completed her pediatric residency at UCSF in 1975 and her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in 1978.

Arvin has received several awards and honors for her research, such as the E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics (1992), the John F. Enders Distinguished Lecture in Medical Virology (2002), the Distinguished Graduate Award for 2010 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Stanford University School of Medicine's Dean's Medal (2016).

Ann Arvin has contributed to multiple national committees and boards. Arvin was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), part of the National Academy of Science in 2003. She was one of the committee members for the 1999 Institute of Medicine Committee on the Assessment of Future Scientific Needs for Live Variola Virus and the chair of the 2009 IOM. She also served on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the NIH Collaborative Antiviral Study Group, the World Health Organization Committee on Research Related to Measles and Measles Vaccine, and the Council of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Arvin is also a member of the Council of the American Society of Virology, the Thrasher Foundation Advisory Board, National Vaccine Advisory Committee, which advises the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.