Previously, she was a postdoctoral Scholar in the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University. Her research uses political, social, and technical perspectives to evaluate the sustainability of environmental planning and decision-making practices, with a focus on collaborative governance and water resources management. She earned her PhD in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, where she was a David & Lucille Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow in Science & Engineering and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Born and raised in northern New Mexico, Nicola's professional life has spanned the public and nonprofit sectors, including work with the U.S. Department of the Interior, the World Bank, and Amigos Bravos, a grassroots river-protection nonprofit in New Mexico.