Based in Milan, she left the Pacific to study structural engineering and architecture at Rice University in Houston and fine arts at SACI Studio Arts Center International in Florence. Back in the US, after two years employed in the field of architecture in Los Angeles, Dwan was accepted to Yale and graduated with a Masters of Architecture in 1984. Returning to Italy on a Fulbright Scholarship to study cemetery architecture in Rome in 1986, she stayed on to become partner in Studio Citterio Dwan, collaborating on residential and commercial projects as well as retail and showrooms in Europe.

Licensed in the US and Italy, Terry founded Dwan Studio in 1991, dedicated mainly to architecture and interior design. Working extensively in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and Italy, she has won multiple prizes and international competitions. In 1996 she began to develop industrial design projects for companies like Sawaya and Moroni, Electrolux, San Lorenzo, and Driade, and led art direction for the sustainable design firm Riva1920 from 2004 to 2009.

Maintaining ties to SACI as professor of architecture from 1997 to 2005, Dwan has lectured or been critic at Yale, Carelton, Montreal, and Bogot Universities. She has served on the Board of Trustees of SACI since 2006 and is a member of the AIA and the Albo degli Architetti Italiani.

Publications include two monographs on the joint studio work of Studio Citterio-Dwan: Antonio Citterio, Terry Dwan: Architecture and Design, and Antonio Citterio, Terry Dwan: Ten Years of Architecture and Design. More recently her work was included in the Domus Notebook series Das Buch der Designer.

Recent charity design initiatives include contributions to "The Hand of the Designer" for FAI Fondo Ambiente Italiano Foundation, and the "Barrique" collection for the San Patrignano rehabilitation community.

Dwan continues to work in both the architectural sector (private residences, exhibition design and interior) as well as design (collections of furniture, porcelain and silver), and some of her work is on display in the permanent collection of the Design Museum at the Triennale in Milan. Recent work at her studio has included a series of private burial chapels near Milan, and a book project on cemeteries is forthcoming.