A native of Buffalo, New York, Nancy Harris Ocrant studied at the Edinburgh Art Institute in Scotland and graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and illustration in 1953. She was an art instructor at the University of Illinois and also lived in Israel, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. In Denver, she established a studio on Pearl Street and taught interior design at the Colorado Institute of Art. In addition to organizing several gallery shows in Colorado, she completed several home and corporate interior design projects.