Leers was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy of Rome (1997), invited to be Chaire des Ameriques at the Sorbonne (Universite de Paris) (2007), and was Chair Professor at the National Chiao Tung University (2011-2014).
[1] In 2018, Leers was appointed to serve as Chair of Commission for the city of Boston.
Leers was born in Miami, Florida and raised in Springfield and Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
She holds an undergraduate degree in art history from Wellesley College and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts during the tenure of Louis I. Kahn.
After an apprenticeship period in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Leers founded a practice in 1970 with former husband Hugh Browning, and when they divorced in 1978 she led the firm until 1982.