Antonia C. Novella was born as Antonia Coella. She was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico on August 23, 1944. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in 1965. In 1970, she received her M.D. degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine at San Juan. Novella then completed her internship and residency in nephrology at the University of Michigan medical Center in Ann Arbor. She remained at Michigan in 1973-1974 on a fellowship in the Department of Internal Medicine, and spent the following year on a fellowship in the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University. She was in private practice in pediatrics in Springfield, Virginia from 1976 to 1978.