Ombretta, Reader in Architecture, is an Associate member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Academic Member of the Academy of Urbanism and past President of IAPS, the International Association for People Environment Studies (www.iaps-association.org) (2008-2012; on Board of Trustees 2004-2008). She also served on the AESOP Board until 2004. She holds a PhD in urban design and a Post Doc in housing and regeneration sponsored by the EU.
Her teaching and research are in the areas of urban design, environment behaviour studies, urban morphology, user participation in design, and research methods in the built environment. She works in the Urban Design Studies Unit (www.udsu-strath.com) where she teaches and researches in the areas of urban theory and masterplanning (MSc in Urban Design, MArch). She has taught modules, has been visiting professor and invited keynote speaker in many countries around the world – South Korea, Brasil, China, India, US, Europe, Russia.
In the Department, she is PGR Director (since summer 2022). In this position, she is working to develop an inclusive research culture amongst PGR students, and stronger links between research and UG and PGT courses. Under her leadership, PGR students have gained access to a rich range of initiatives, are regularly involved in teaching and research opportunities and are supported in research training. She oversaw two PRES, each achieving continuous improvement in student satisfaction and particularly high response rate.  
She also coordinates both BSc Dissertations (since 2020) and PGT dissertations (since 2016), for a total of 100 credits across the whole 4th and 5th year cohorts. Overseeing and managing all student-led research in the Department for this considerable time, has allowed her to build a robust research-support framework for students, from UG to PGR, evidenced by continuously improving quality in outputs, positive feedback from external examiners, and an increasing number of students now enrolling into a PhD directly from our own cohort. She regularly gets nominated in the Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards; in 2016, she won the 'Most Innovative Teacher of the Year".
In the Department Ombretta she leads the Learning and Teaching Forum with Derek Hill, is an active member of the Management Group. She has sat on Senate for four years, and is involved in many Faculty and University-wide groups/panels (PGRs, APAP, disciplinary, appeals). 
Ombretta also represents the University to the City of Glasgow as an Established Member of the Glasgow Urban Design Panel, which meets monthly to discuss the most important planning applications coming forward in the city. This is an exciting role, which brings together experts from all key organisations with a stake in the sustainable, resilient and beautiful development of Glasgow.