Maria Álvares holds a PhD in Public Policy from CIES-Iscte and is currently a senior officer at PlanAPP – Centre of Competence for Planning, Policy and Foresight in Public Administration, where she is part of the Multidisciplinary Team for Evaluation and Impact Analysis. She is a specialist in public policy evaluation, with a solid track record in the fields of education and training, tackling school failure and early school leaving, inclusion, and equal opportunities.

With a career spanning over 20 years, she has worked as coordinator and researcher in numerous evaluations of public policies and programmes, both nationally and at European level. She coordinated, among others, the evaluation study of the municipal programme "Lisboa Secundário para Tod@s" (2020–2023), was responsible for the evaluation of Curricular Autonomy and Flexibility (PESSOAS 2030), and was part of the evaluation team of the Active Citizens programme (EEA Grants). Between 2008 and 2010, she was a member of the team of the 2nd Priority Education Areas Programme (TEIP) of the Ministry of Education.

She has collaborated as a national expert in international studies promoted by institutions such as Eurydice, Ecorys, CEDEFOP, PPMI, and NESET, addressing topics such as inclusive education, early school leaving, bilateral cooperation, and the development of educational infrastructure. She also has experience as an external auditor under the EQAVET framework.

She completed her PhD in 2020 with distinction and unanimous approval, with the dissertation "Discourses of Change: Equal Opportunities in 30 Years of Education Policy in Portugal." She is the author of several national and international scientific publications in the fields of policy evaluation, education policy, discourse analysis, and deliberation. She is currently also a tutor at Universidade Aberta (Open University).