Nahon was born in Tel-Aviv to parents who immigrated from Lebanon before the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war. Her academic background is from various fields. She received a B.Sc. in computer science, B.A. in political science and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in management of information systems from Tel-Aviv University. She maintains a dual position as an associate professor faculty in the Information School at the University of Washington since 2004, and since 2010 in the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel. At the University of Washington she directs the Virality of Information research group. She is the first woman nominated to lead a track at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.