Tamara Lynne Nicola grew up in Naples and has lived here since 1971. She attended Lake Park Elementary, Gulf View Middle School and graduated from Barron Collier High School in 1983.

She obtained her bachelor's degree in psychology, with a minor in sociology, from Stetson University in 1987. She received her juris doctor from Ohio Northern University in 1992. While in law school, she received the American Jurisprudence book award for family law and land use. She was the president of the Student Bar Association during her third year of law school and a member of the honors fraternity Phi Delta Phi. She was also an Editor of the Ohio Northern Law Review and published an article "Coerced Confessions and Harmless Error" in her third year. She was a member of the traveling Moot Court Tax Team and her team placed fourth in the US tax competition.

Judge Nicola was on the board of the Collier County Bar Association from 2006 until 2015. She served on the board and worked her way up the ranks to President. She was active with Collier County Legal Aid and earned its top award of attorney of the year in 2013 and was also awarded the honor of attorney of the month in September of 2016. She currently serves on the board of Collier Child Care Resources, which focuses on providing quality early childhood education to children from birth to 5.

She is now one of the 6 County Court Judges. Her docket is divided between Criminal cases, Small Claims cases and traffic cases.