Due to her father's job in the auto industry, the family moved to Tennessee for a brief time before relocating back to the Iowan community of Hills outside of Iowa City, where both of her parents ended up working for local banks.

After two years at Kirkwood Community College, she and her husband left Iowa and began to move around the country for his job at Kimberly Clark.

[3] This experience motivated her to apply for a city council seat that had opened up upon the passing of North Liberty's mayor.

Despite her relative inexperience and her opponent's stellar record of 15 years public service, Nielsen won with 55% of the vote.

[3] In 2015, when Sally Stutsman announced that she would not seek reelection, House leadership reached out to Nielsen, who initially declined.