Nora is from New Jersey and grew up in California’s Central Valley. She earned her B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology with a minor in Ethics from California State University, Stanislaus, where she was selected for the University Honors Program, served as an undergraduate teaching assistant, conducted biology education research, and was a K–12 STEM Outreach Ambassador.

In 2019, she joined the Sukenik Laboratory in UC Merced’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where she spent over three years studying disordered protein structures in human cells.

In 2022, Nora joined the Nobile Laboratory to pursue a PhD in microbiology, specializing in fungal diseases. She developed and now applies a new animal model, the planarian flatworm to study host–pathogen interactions to understand the genetic mechanisms driving fungal disease. 

She is an 8x National Science Foundation fellow, has been invited to speak on panels supporting graduate, undergraduate, and K–12 students pursuing careers in research. She has mentored ten student researchers and taught eight university-level courses.