Monica Ponce de Leon is a founding partner of the former architecture firm Office dA, the design director of the architecture firm MPdL Studio and the Dean and Eliel Saarinen Collegiate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Monica Ponce de Leon's work is internationally recognized for its innovation in design. She has been honored by the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum (National Design Award in Architecture, 2007) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Award in Architecture, 2002). She has also received honors from the United States Artists (Target Fellowship in Architecture and Design, 2007) and the Architectural League of New York (Young Architects Award, 1997) Additionally, Monica Ponce de Leon's projects have received many awards for their excellence in design, which include the AIA Institute Honor Award, the AIA/ALA Library Building Award, the Harleston Parker Award, and twelve Progressive Architecture Awards in fifteen years. Her work has been featured in publications around the world and has also participated in exhibitions at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Venice Biennale and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Monica Ponce de Leon received a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1989 from the University of Miami and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1991. She joined the Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty in 1996, where she was a Professor of Architecture and the director of the Digital Lab. She has also held teaching appointments at Northeastern University, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design and Georgia Institute of Technology among others.