Gioia is a sustainability professional with deep experience bridging design, implementation, and partnership development. After studying sustainable development as an undergraduate at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, she worked on a wide variety of combined planning, design, and economic development projects across Connecticut. She was project associate with Vita Nuova, a brownfield redevelopment consultancy; interim executive director of the art and science nonprofit Projects for a New Millennium; and a design/fabrication associate at Bloomer Studio. She recently graduated from the Master of Architecture and Master of Environmental Management joint degree program at Yale University, where she worked across disciplines and scales as both a student and a research fellow on projects related to resilience and green design. She was a research fellow with the Yale Urban Design Lab and the Urban Ecological Design Lab, a teaching fellow for Ecological Design, and cofounder of New Haven Community Solar.

She is active in research, policy, and organizing for climate justice in the state and elsewhere, and is honored to be spearheading the renewal of the Emerging Professionals Committee at BuildGreenCT with stellar colleagues and mentors in the field.