Sheila received her PhD in Sustainable Development and Architecture in Australia. Her PhD Thesis was awarded the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Australasia Award for Doctoral Research Excellence in 2013. She has studied in the Philippines, Thailand, Japan and Australia under various international postgraduate scholarships.

Sheila has extensive research and industry experience and has published several international referred journals related to building and urban sustainability which received 306 citations (as of 2019). She is also the author of an urban conservation book (1998), a co-author of the Design for Maintainability book (2018) and co-author of the book chapter on Low Carbon Urban Design (2017).

Sheila founded the AdaptSTAR Lab in 2018 to promote the design of highly sustainable, maintainability, adaptability and circular buildings. She continues her passion in developing building and urban sustainability tools and strategised applied research for climate change adaptation.