PhD in Design. Researcher and Professor at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano and the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (MSc Innovation and Technology Management). She is a member of the Polimi DESIS Lab within the international DESIS Network (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability).

Her research focuses on design for social innovation, social design and participatory design theories and practices, specifically developing design-driven models for incubating innovative processes to improve social cohesion through participatory design. She is involved in multi-actor systems projects at the community level in urban and rural contexts, with outcomes in spatial, strategic, and service design.

Currently involved in the research projects "ONFOODS - Research and innovation network on food and nutrition Sustainability, Safety and Security" (2023-26, PNRR NextGenerationEU) and "Trame Locali: Sustainable and Narrative Paths of Basso Monferrato" (2025, PNRR CHANGES – Cultural Heritage Active Innovation for Sustainable Society).

She has been the co-coordinator of “Human Cities/SMOTIES, Creative works with small and remote places” (2020-24, Creative Europe) and collaborated in the projects “DoCS4Design - Doctoral Courses System 4 Design” (2020-23, Erasmus+), “Human Cities, Challenging the city scale” (2014-18, Creative Europe) and “campUS, Incubation and settings for social practices” (2014-16, awarded with the Compasso D’Oro in 2018). In 2014/2016, she collaborated with the European consortium GIDE – Group for International Design Education.

Over the past fifteen years, she has carried out research and teaching activities (bachelor and master studios) as a Visiting to design universities, notably at TU Delft (2025), Federal University of Juiz de Fora (2023), Universidad de Navarra (2019), University of the Aegean (2018), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (2017), College of Design & Innovation of Tongji University (2017), and Middlesex University in London (2017).