Nora was born in Vietnam; she belongs to the Cham ethnic group, an indigenous Muslim people of the country. Persecuted by the communists, at age four she was forced to flee with her family, finding refuge in the U.S. There, she and her family had to learn a new language and culture while struggling to attain economic and psychological security.

Nora went on to complete her undergraduate degree at the International Islamic University Malaysia where she majored in Linguistics and Literature and Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Heritage. She helped found the Al-Nisa’ Youth Group Inc., and Sakina, a crisis accommodation shelter for CALD women escaping domestic violence. In 2006, she co-founded Australian Muslim Advocates for the Rights of All Humanity (AMARAH). AMARAH is dedicated to human rights, civil rights, environmental responsibility, social reform and inter-community relations; Nora serves as chairperson. Nora is also the current secretary for Islamic Relief Australia, the largest Islamic humanitarian aid agency in the world. She has just recently been re-appointed to the Queensland Multicultural Advisory Council, the only member to have achieved this.

In recognition for her services to the community, she received the prestigious award of Australian Muslim Woman of the Year 2006. In 2007 and again in 2012, she was awarded the Australia Day Community Award. In 2015, Nora was recognised as the 2015 Peacewoman of the Year. In between all of that, Nora completed her PhD in sociology of religion in 2014 and is a well-published researcher and author in the fields of community development, multiculturalism, social inclusion and Islam-West relations. Her first book, The Phenomenology of Community Activism was published by Melbourne University Press in 2015.