Lea Petrović Krajnik was born in Zagreb in 1979. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Zagreb in 2003. Since 2004 she has been working at the Department of Urban Planning, Spatial Planning and Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb.

In the period from 2006 to 2009, she attended the “Doktoratsstudium der technischen Wissenschaften – Arhitektur” at the Graz University of Technology, Austria, where she received her PhD in 2009 after defending her doctoral dissertation entitled "Impact of the World Exhibition on Urban and Regional Development".

She was a winner of the Schumacher - Studienreisestipendium for 2004 awarded by Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S., Hamburg, Germany, on the conclusion of the curatorium of the Fritz-Schumacher Prize for architecture and urban planning. She has been trained in scientific, teaching and professional skills at internationally recognized institutions in Spain, Japan, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Austria and Slovenia.

She is associate professor at the Department of Urban Planning, Spatial Planning and Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb and the head of the Spatial Planning Cabinet. She teaches at the Department in Bachelor and Master’s level studies and lectures on the course “Spatial Planning” and the elective course "Sustainability in Urban Planning and Spatial Planning" on the Master’s program. At the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Zagreb, she lectures on the course "Introduction to Spatial Planning".

She actively participates as a researcher in international and Croatian scientific projects. She is the author of a series of scientific works in Croatian and foreign scientific journals and at international scientific conferences, and is a member of the editorial board of three books. From 2008 to 2017 she was a member of the Editorial Board of the scholarly journal of architecture and urban planning "Prostor". She is a reviewer of scientific articles in Croatia and abroad, and a member of scientific and organizational committees.

In addition to teaching and scientific research, she is engaged in professional work in the field of urban planning, spatial planning and architecture. She is co-author of a series of adopted urban and spatial plans, realized architectural projects, urban planning - architectural and landscape studies and conservation reports. She participates in urban planning and architectural competitions, urban planning salons and national competitions.

She is an authorized architect of the Croatian Chamber of Architects, a member of the Association of Croatian Architects and the Association of Architects of the City of Zagreb.