Norene has been a studio instructor/lecturer At Otis College of Art and Design for 22 years, teaching in they Toy Design Department, and a few years in the Product Design Department. She received her degree in Fashion Design at FIDM and worked for 12 years in the Los Angeles garment industry as a designer and first pattern-maker doing Missy and Children's sportswear, and has also designed and patterned uniforms for hotels, themed restaurants and a Vegas casino or two.
She switched to toys in 1987 when she was hired by Applause and began making patterns and prototypes for plush toys and dolls. There she became a Sr. Creative manager of the plush section and also managed a team of 2D and 3D designers, supervising the creation of product lines for CTW (Sesame Street), Warner Brothers Consumer Products, Disney Consumer Products, Disney Entertainment Features, Disney Standard Characters, as well as Applause/ Dakin licenses, proprietary and Special Market products. During her 36 years in the toy industry she has, and continues to, freelance for many of the major toy companies and licensors in the USA, Canada and South America such as Warner Brothers, Disney, and Disney Entertainment, Disney Theme Parks, Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbera, Mattel, Dakin, PlayMates, Funrise, MGAE, and Jakks Pacific, as well as many smaller independent toy companies.