Nadia was born in Minsk, Belarus, and has lived in Vienna, Austria, were she graduated from the Vienna International School with an International Baccalaureate (I.B.) bilingual diploma (Russian and German).

She worked as an intern at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, United Nations, Austria. She obtained her B.A. in International Studies with a minor in Criminal Justice from the University of South Carolina (Columbia; 2003), and her M.S. in Criminal Justice from Georgia State University (2007).

While pursuing her degree at Georgia State University, she worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for the GILEE program. She speaks fluent English, German, and Russian.