Maria is a professor at Instituto Politecnico, Escuela de la Salud (Polytechnic Institute, School of Health) in Leiria, Portugal. She holds a PhD in Psychological Intervention from University of Extremadura (Spain) and a Masters in Nursing Sciences from Porto University (Portugal). In addition to mentoring Masters and PhD students, she has published extensively and has participated on the editorial board or as a peer reviewer for several articles in a variety of journals.