Known as an educational force, Ponce de León is currently a professor and the dean at Princeton University School of Architecture. From 2008 through 2015, she was the dean of Taubman College at the University of Michigan. For over 12 years, Ponce de León taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where she became a professor and served as the Graduate Program coordinator and was director of the Digital Fabrication Lab. Prior to her appointment at Harvard, Ponce de León was an assistant professor at Northeastern University. She has been a visiting professor or scholar at various institutions across the United States, including SCI-Arc, Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Miami, as well as Georgia Tech. At Georgia Tech, she was the first Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design. In recognition of her extraordinary contributions in academia, in 2018 Ponce de León received ACADIA’s distinguished teaching award, and in 2020 received the Architectural Record Women in Architecture Award for Educator/Mentor.
Ponce de León has a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, as well as a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Miami.