Maiara has a degree in Geography from Pontificial Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and a MSc. in Applied Ecology: Biodiversity in Conservation Units by the National School of Tropical Botany (ENBT-JBRJ). She is interested in environmental issues, in particular physical geography, interdisciplinary aspects of soil science, land use, ecosystem services (mainly carbon and water) and reforestation. She worked as a trainee and a PIBIC fellow at Embrapa Solos, analyzing the determination of water retention in the soil by different methods in soil samples in the main classes of soils in the coffee regions of the State of Rio de Janeiro. In her master’s, she sought to understand how soils influence the regeneration / reforestation of the Atlantic Forest forests. She is a researcher linked to CSRio and works as a research assistant at the International Institute for Sustainability (IIS).