Initially trained as a social psychologist and project manager, I have extensive experience in group dynamics and informal adult education. After a career in communication, I worked as a campaign manager (Greenpeace Oceans Campaign and Global Seed Freedom Campaign), adult educator, and community organiser. For my work as a Seed Freedom advocate I won the 2014 Terre de Femmes 1st prize for Portugal. After completing my PhD in Sociology with a dissertation on the ecological-democratic quality of the political economy of food, I worked for the H2020 "PROSEU" project as a research fellow and work package leader on behalf of FEUP-UPorto, conducting a review and Europe-wide survey on collective forms of Renewable Energy self-consumption. At ICS-ULisboa my post-doctoral research project focuses on the ecological-democratic quality and respective participatory assessment criteria for the successful development of small-scale strong sustainable agro-food initiatives in Portugal.