Sheila O’Donnell received a degree in architecture from University College Dublin and an MA in Environmental Design from the Royal College of Art London. In 1988 she cofounded O’Donnell + Tuomey in Dublin. Until 2019 she taught at University College Dublin and she has taught and lectured internationally. In 2010 she and John Tuomey were named Honorary Fellows of the AIA (Hon.FAIA) and in 2015 they received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Brunner Prize. In 2019 she was named Architect of the Year at the Women in Architecture Awards (WIA) for her work on the Central European University in Budapest and she was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.