Licensed in clinical psychology, she is a staff psychologist at the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center where she is housed both in the Division of Behavioral Genetics and in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Nugent earned her undergraduate degree at Wittenberg University, her master's degree at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and her doctoral degree at Kent State University. She completed a T32 internship at the MUSC Charleston Consortium and completed a T32 fellowship through the Alpert Medical School of Brown University DPHB.