Catarina is a broadly trained conservation biologist, with international experience in the research, project management, and policy arenas. As an academic, she specialized in terrestrial ecology and wildlife management. She published over 30 scientific papers in peer-reviewed top-tier journals, and received numerous grants throughout her career, including a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie International Outgoing Fellowship and a Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellowship. As a conservation scientist, she has a rich cross-sectoral experience in the environmental public, private, and not-for-profit sectors in Europe and North America, where she acted as a knowledge broker to support evidence-informed policy decisions. Notably, among other roles, she was the Assistant Director of the first and only Iberian Lynx Captive Breeding Centre in Portugal, and the European Biodiversity Conservation Coordinator at IUCN in Belgium. She worked for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as a Policy and Program Analyst of cross-cutting plant health issues.