Nicole earned a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Russian from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD in 1990 and served five years as an active duty naval officer after graduation. After resigning her commission in the navy in 1995, she worked as a customer service manager for two years at the Innova Corporation in Seattle.

In 1997 she entered a graduate program in the physics department at the University of Washington where she earned a master's degree working with Professor Larry Sorensen on a project titled "The Einstein-Podalski-Rosen Paradox and Annihilation Photon Entanglement." While at the University of Washington she worked with the Physics Education Group as a teaching assistant in undergraduate physics tutorials and teaching Physics by Inquiry to in-service teachers. She also taught science and mathematics at Chabad High School in Seattle and worked with the Seattle Public Schools summer teacher workshops to introduce inquiry-based science curriculum in elementary grades.

While at the University of California, she worked as a graduate student instructor, researcher and curriculum developer in the physics department and as a research assistant for Dr. Nahide Craig at the Center for Science Education in the Space Sciences Laboratory. She worked with Professor Andrea diSessa on a study of students' intuitive understanding of force, the results of which have been published in Cognitive Science, and on his research investigating students' understanding of patterns of change in nature. She has given research presentations at the annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association, the International Conference of the Learning Sciences and the American Association of Physics Teachers and has given invited talks to the physics education research groups at the Universities of Maine, Maryland and Washington. Additionally she collaborated with the Physics Education Research Laboratory at the University of Maine, Orono, to develop a year-long curriculum for a master's in Science Teaching program.

From 2000 to 2003 she was a science teacher with the Upward Bound Program at Napa Valley College and in the summer of 2004 she worked as a mentor to science teachers in the Summerbridge program at San Francisco's University High School.

Nicole was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor in the U.C. Berkely physics department in 2001 and a Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in 2004. Additionally, she was awarded a National Science Foundation Science and Design Fellowship in 1999 and again in 2000, a Spencer Research Training Grant Fellowship in 2000 and a California Space Grant Fellowship in the summer of 2000. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association, The American Association of Physics Teachers and the International Society of the Learning Sciences. As Senior Program Officer, Nicole directs the KSTF Teaching Fellows program and has primary responsibility for the 2004 cohort of Science Teaching Fellows. She also developed the Young Scholars Fellowship program and planned the inaugral KSTF Conference, which was held in September, 2006 at Wingspread. She can be reached at ngillespie@kstf.org