Hazreena has over 25 years of progressive teaching and research experience at Universiti Malaya. Her research interests include person–environment interactions, inclusive access to outdoor environments, and multisensory stimulation environments. Her doctoral work focused on accessible design for sensory gardens, particularly for children with special educational needs. She received the Academic Staff Mobility Grant at Jean Moulin University in Lyon, awarded by the Embassy of France to Malaysia. She has been invited as a keynote speaker at several conferences, with her work earning the Best Paper award at the 2013 Asia-Pacific International Conference on Environment–Behaviour Studies in London. In 2012, she collaborated on designing a sensory garden for children with special needs at Al-Bukhary International University, one of Malaysia’s first. During her sabbatical, she served as a consultant for Amano Hospital to establish a therapeutic sensory stimulation garden on the rooftop of Nozomi No Sato, Japan. She also played a key role in revising Malaysian Standards MS1184 and MS1331, advancing universal design and accessibility in the built environment.

Hazreena has served as principal investigator for several projects: Establishing Inclusive Campus Environment (ICE) Framework for Universities in Nusantara (Malaysia and Indonesia) (2024–2026), Urban Park Characteristics in Integrating Mental Health Comorbid with Non-Communicable Diseases through Salivary Cortisol Pattern and Spatial Analysis (2019–2022), Landscape Identity of Cameron Highlands Hill Station: Soundscape (2013–2017), and Enhancing Wellbeing through Recreational and Sensory Therapy in Landscape Design (2014–2017). She received seed funding from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) for The Physiological Responses to Therapeutic Sensory Stimulation Garden: A Pilot Study (2016–2017). She has earned several awards from Universiti Malaya, including the Distinguished Service Award (2012), PhD completion in less than 4 years (2010), and Excellent Service Award (2005, 2014, 2020, 2024). Since 2012, she has served on the editorial boards of the Asian Journal of Environment-Behaviour Studies and the Journal of Asian Behavioural Studies. Having traveled extensively, she enjoys being in nature.