Nikki attended Niagara College and graduated from its print journalism program in 2002, followed by a post-graduate certificate in corporate communications from Fanshawe College. The Pickering native headed out west and began her journalism career at Houston Today and Smithers Interior News in B.C. She returned to Ontario in 2006 and landed a job as a features writer/assistant editor in Durham Region. In the fall of 2007, she joined The Midland Mirror as a reporter until 2017, at which point she became a communications co-ordinator at Georgian Bay General Hospital, providing her more time to focus on her young family. In 2020, she began working for Dockside Publishing as a writer, which allowed her to combine her love of cottage life and the lake. A mother of two, Nikki joined the BarrieToday news team as a reporter in February 2021. She also has a 'fur baby' in the form of an 80-pound chocolate lab named Reese who thinks he’s a lap dog.
