Monica Ponce de Leon is widely recognized as a leader in the application of robotic technology to building fabrication. She is widely recognized as a leader in the application of robotic technology to building fabrication. She developed a state-of-the-art student-run digital fabrication lab at the University of Michigan, integrating digital fabrication into the curriculum of the school. In large part because of her pioneering work, the use of digital tools is now commonplace in architecture schools across the country.

Monica Ponce de Leon was previously Dean of the Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, USA (2008-15) and was also the Eliel Saarinen Collegiate Professor of Architecture & Urban Planning. She commenced her appointment as Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University on January 1, 2016

She was a Professor at the Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, serving on the faculty for 12 years. 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.

She co-founded Office dA in 1991, and started her own design practice, MPdL Studio, with offices in New York, Boston and Ann Arbor in 2011. She holds a master's degree in architecture and urban design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Miami.

Monica Ponce de Leon co-curated the exhibition of the United States at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale together with Cynthia Davidson, Executive Director of nonprofit Anyone Corporation. The exhibition “The Architectural Imagination” presented new architectural ideas produced for sites in Detroit but with far-reaching application for cities around the world. The exhibition showcased projects that demonstrate the creativity and resourcefulness of architectural teams challenged to address urban and environmental issues in the city of the 21st century.

She is a recipient of the National Design Award in Architecture (2007) from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Museum. She has received the Academic Award in Architecture (2007) from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; the USA Target Fellow in Architecture & Design from United States Artists; and the Young Architects and Emerging Voices awards (1997) from the Architectural League of New York. Her work has received a dozen Progressive Architecture Awards, several awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and numerous citations.