Gabriela is an urban planning and urban design researcher with an interest in the construction of place. Her work explores the meanings that people associate with physical urban spaces and how those meanings are enhanced or diminished by the activities that happen within them. She is an advocate for the design and development of spaces that reflect the needs of local communities and the potential of construction of place as a tool for social justice.

In partnership with the UTS Institute for Public Policy and Governance, Gabriela is currently delivering a series of workshops for the NSW Government to support the implementation of the Movement and Place Framework. This framework, which is aligned with the findings of Gabriela’s PhD, aims to transform existing narratives around roads, streets and transport by redefining these urban spaces as places for community interaction. Since 2020, Gabriela has also been working on a series of projects focused on housing for domestic violence survivors and how violence impacts their attachment to, or displacement from, the spaces in which they live. This work has significant potential for application within the community; recently, it has prompted the Waverley Housing Advisory Committee, on which Gabriela is an expert member, to explore options to improve support for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence.


Gabriela’s work has made an important contribution to the academic literature in Australia and beyond. She was a co-author of the Urban chapter in the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s Australia State of the Environment Report (2022). She has also published on topics including housing provision for women experiencing domestic and family violence during COVID-19 (Urban Policy and Research, 2022), reimagining the future of the Sydney CBD after COVID-19 (Urban Planning, 2022), resident wellbeing in informal housing (Global Discourse, 2022), and decarbonising Australian housing (Housing Finance International, 2021).

She is the current President of the Australia and New Zealand Association of Planning Schools (ANZAPS) and is actively involved in building the profile of the planning and urban design professions in Australia and internationally. Her recent contributions include being an invited jury member for the International Student Competition of the World Planning Schools Congress in Bali (2022), an invited speaker for the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN) Presidents’ plenary session (2022), and a contributor to the five-year GPEAN plan for global planning education (2022). She has also been an invited presenter at the Festival of Urbanism (2022) and the University College London’s Master of Urban Design program (2021 and 2022) and a jury member for the Chris Proctor Prize and the David Linder Prize (2021).

Gabriela is regularly invited to review book proposals and academic articles within the planning domain. She is a member of the International Smart & Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE) Editorial Review Board, sits on the board of the Australasian Cities Research Network and is a full member of the Planning Institute of Australia. She holds a PhD from UTS (2018) and a Master of Urban Design (2008), a Bachelor of Psychology (Social Psychology) (2019) and a Bachelor of Architecture (2004) from Central University of Venezuela.