Dr. Irene Ciccarino is a management assistant professor and researcher. She studies social value creation and sustainable development strategies, primarily through innovation, projects, entrepreneurship, and public policies. She holds a Ph.D. in business management from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and an M.Sc. in the same field from IBMC-RJ. Likewise, she also has a specialization in public policies for social equality, by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). CLACSO and EMES awarded two of her studies. Currently, she lectures project management Master’s classes at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (Portugal), researches at University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE), and represents PM4NGOs in Portugal.

With over 20 years of management experience, she has worked in consultancy for public, private, and social economy clients. She contributed to public policies' elaboration, such as the employment and income axis of the “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” program and the creation of the Youth Reference Centres of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). She developed projects Proximidades, Casas Vivas and Espaço Elos to support recipients of different age groups in situations of extreme social vulnerability and drug abuse. As a project manager at CUFA (Brazil), she coordinated the projects “Rebelião Cultural” in the high-security prison system and the TV program “Aglomerado”  to spot peripheral culture.

She is currently on the board of the Óbidos Social Innovation Hub (Portugal) and supports Task Force on Inequality-related Financial Disclosures (TIFD). Likewise, she is associated with the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ECSB), Donut Economics Action Lab (Global).