She holds a PhD from the University of Miami and a Bachelor's degree in architecture and urbanism from the University of São Paulo. She was a professor of architecture at the Catholic University in Campinas and served as an architect for the State Housing Agency (CDHU) in São Paulo. Her research interests focus on municipal development, urban space, gender, and political culture. She is the author of Urban Space and National Identity in Early Twentieth-Century São Paulo, Brazil: Crafting Modernity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). She has also published numerous journal articles and has contributed to The Brazil Reader (1999) and Municipal Services and Employees in the Modern City (2003).