Elena is Architect and Urban Designer. Currently Director of Urban Mobility at LStar Ventures (Raleigh, North Carolina), formerly Research Scientist in Urban Design and Sustainability at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, at Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore-ETH Centre. Elena has been Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, at the Queensland University of Technology, at the Sydney University of Technology and at the University of Melbourne.

Elena graduated with a Doctorate in Architecture at the Università degli Studi di Venezia (Venice) and received a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design at Columbia University and a PhD in Architecture and Urban Design at the Advanced Architecture Research Program at the
University of Melbourne.