Leonie is an architect, researcher, creative practitioner and curator. She has also taught architecture in Western Australia and Queensland.

Graduating from Curtin University in 1992, Leonie spent ten years working in the design/build practice of her father, Lynthorne Matthews. She then went on to co-found Matthews McDonald Architects with Paul McDonald - a small architectural practice, that focusses on residential and community projects.

Leonie combines her time in practice with her role as Creative Director of SpatialCo, a business providing high quality digital scans to create point cloud models. Alongside SpatialCo Director Peter Hill, Leonie is also exploring the use of emerging 3D technologies as a contemporary form of image making. In this field she has worked and exhibited nationally and internationally, including ‘Yangon Alley Garden’ a community-based arts project undertaken in Yangon, Myanmar, with local partner Doh Eain in 2019/2020 . The project was funded by the Australian Federal Government through the Australia-ASEAN Council. Leonie and Peter's work is held in private and public collections, including the 2022 acquisition ‘Mountain Quarry_A,B,C’ by the Shire of Mundaring.

As a researcher and curator, Leonie has published widely with a focus on Western Australian architectural history. Amongst this work is 'Civic Visions: Council House 1954 - 1963', an exhibition held in 2019 at Council House in Perth. Co-curated with Dr Nicole Sully, the exhibition featured little known submissions for the 1960 design competititon for the project, won by Jeffrey Howlett and Donald Bailey.

After thirty years working in the architecture discipline, Leonie has gained a wide and varied range of experiences and skills that she continues to apply with passion and care.