Dr. Nichols was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs. She received her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University and graduated cum laude. She received her medical doctorate from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she was inducted into both the Alpha Omega Alpha and Gold Humanism Honors Societies. She completed her emergency medicine residency at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and subsequently her emergency ultrasound fellowship at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital/Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. She currently works clinically at MedStar Harbor Hospital in Baltimore and teaches residents and medical students at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Washington Hospital Center.