 He graduated from Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County in 1973.He then received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977 and a master's degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 1979.Soon after starting his Ph.D. at the Annenberg School, Nisenholtz was invited by John Carey, a professional colleague and Annenberg graduate, to participate in an NSF-funded research project at the Alternate Media Center (AMC) at New York University (NYU).