A few years later, she won the UNIFEM Women's Empowerment Art Competition, whose prize included trips to Dakar, Senegal; Abuja, Nigeria; and Beijing, China, to represent African youth in the Women's World Conferences. In 1995, Okore enrolled into the Fine and Applied Arts undergraduate program at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her first mediums were oil and acrylic paint. By her third year, Okore began experimenting with unusual materials on canvas, in an effort to distinguish her work from the more conventional painting of her peers. She employed leaves, jute, cloth, sticks, shredded photographs, broomsticks, recycled paper, and leather, among other materials. Subsequently, she started creating free-flowing surfaces that were characterized by their textural build-up of paint, soil, rope, fabric, and other found objects. By her final year, her works were largely focused on issues of consumption and inventive recycling as it related to the Nigerian experience. Okore was influenced by her teachers, including Chijioke Onuora, Chike Aniakor, and El Anatsui. Okore received a bachelor's degree in fine and applied arts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1999, with first-class honors. Two years later, Okore relocated to the United States for a masters of fine arts program at the University of Iowa, which she completed in 2005. After graduating from the University of Iowa, Okore was recruited by North Park University to teach and oversee the sculpture unit of the art department in 2005. She is presently a professor of art and department head, instructing undergraduate students in three-dimensional design, sculptural practices, and drawing, among other subjects. Alongside her teaching career, Okore's work has been exhibited to global audiences in over 80 solo and group shows, across international venues in Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa. Her works have been reviewed positively in publications such as "Sculpture Magazine", "The New York Times", "Financial Times", "Art South Africa" and "Ceramics: Art and Perception". In 2012, Okore received a Fulbright Scholar Award. With the accompanying grant, she traveled to Nigeria for a year-long teaching project at the University of Lagos, while producing a series of new creative explorations. She returned to the United States after completing her project in 2013. Okore's early years in the United States presented her with environmental and cultural differences.