She spent much of her career at University of North Dakota, where she served as a professor and later chair of the Art Department, teaching printmaking and art history for several decades. McElroy’s artwork—especially her screen prints and works on paper—recast familiar Red River Valley imagery with surreal and poetic elements, blending regional subject matter with a distinctly personal, dreamlike sensibility.
After retiring from UND around 2000, she stepped back from studio practice and turned to writing fiction, publishing mystery novels under the pen name Nora Barker.
McElroy’s legacy endures through her influence on generations of students and through her prints held in university and regional art collections across North Dakota and the Upper Midwest.