Nicola is an expert in economic abuse as it occurs within the context of coercive control. She has worked in the violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector since 2006 and held policy-influencing and research roles before moving into charity leadership.

In 2016, Nicola was made a Winston Churchill Fellow and travelled to the United States and Australia to explore innovative responses to economic abuse. It was her determination to ensure that women in the UK have access to the same responses that led her to establish Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) in 2017.

Nicola is also an Emeritus Research Fellow in the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at London Metropolitan University,

In October 2020, Nicola was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to victims of domestic and economic abuse. She was the 2020 winner of the Third Sector Award for Rising Chief Executive and named ‘Rising Leader of the Year’ in 2021 by the Charity Times Awards.