Catarina Mendes Cruz has a degree in Sociology from the University of Minho, a post-graduate degree in Marketing Research from ISEG - Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão da Universidade de Lisboa, a master's degree in Science Communication from Nova FCSH and is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa with the thesis project 'The Europeanization of anti-poverty policies in Portugal'.

Her professional career has spanned several non-governmental organizations and companies, most notably from 2010 to 2019, where she had the opportunity to develop and deepen her knowledge of poverty and social exclusion at European, national and local level.

At CoLABOR, she is responsible for curating quantitative data on the DataLABOR and LXStat open data platforms, ensuring contact with partner entities and managing institutional partnerships, and is part of public policy evaluation projects. Since 2020, she has been coordinating the communication area of the collaborative laboratory.

catarina.cruz@colabor.pt