[1] Silva lived her childhood between Maracaibo, Venezuela, and St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1998, she graduated in Chemistry and Art history from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and then obtained the Master in Architecture from Harvard University, graduating in 2002, where she was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal.

[3] Ten years later, she founded Enlace Foundation, an NGO that promotes cultural and educational programs of social inclusion and processes of participatory design together with multiple cultural, civic and professional partners.

[8] She is currently associate professor at Florida International University with a joint appointment in the Department of Architecture and the FIU Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab.

In 2023, she was named one of the three AFIELD fellows alongside Louis Oke-Agbo and Necati Sönmez.