Dr. Pestana teaches construction contracts and specifications, scheduling and planning, estimating, heavy civil management, building construction management, CCE graphics and design, and lean construction courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. As an academic who has spent years in the field, Dr. Pestana creates conditions for students to learn by guiding them to organize information in a personally meaningful way, helping them grow and prepare for their careers ahead. Dr. Pestana fosters a classroom that has a safe space in which students feel confident to engage in active learning and are willing to take the intellectual risks necessary to learn. Dr. Pestana balances lectures with application assignments, and small group and whole group discussions so that students are engaged in applied learning with peer cooperation on real-world problems.

Dr. Pestana's research interest lie the area of project management, including lean management and risk management and the integration of human factors with virtual design and simulation. Her research interests focuses on the enhancement of the performance of production systems and products in different stages of their life-cycle and supply chain in the AEC industry. The main methods used are based on lean thinking and lean management, as well as on risk-based optimization and management techniques. Current research address multi-criteria risk-based decision methodologies to identify and validate improvements to processes and on-site operations in the AEC industry.