Valerie graduated from the BA (Hons) Retail Design Management at London College of Communication (LCC). In her early career she worked as a designer at Eye Design International, an interior and identity consultancy with projects in the leisure, hospitality and entertainment sector, for high-profile clients such as Hard Rock Cafe Asia and Disney Europe.

Subsequently she joined Panacentric Limited, a web design and marketing consultancy, as Creative Director. Working with a multi-disciplinary team gave her the opportunity to integrate her knowledge of 3D design with web design and promote innovative concepts for graphics and websites.

While retaining her interior design professional practice, she also began teaching on digital architectural drawing courses at LCC and Chelsea College of Art and Design, and developed training manuals and courses on digital design drawing. She worked across a range of interior design courses at LCC and after successfully completing her teaching qualification, she became Course Director of the ABC Diploma in Interior Design. Two years ago, she took her current position as Course Director of the Fda Graphic and Spatial Communication and is also a Senior Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Interior Spatial Design.

In the last year she developed an e-learning pedagogic research project for the University of the Arts London Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design (CLTAD), with a website and virtual learning environment in Second Life.