Maria Inês Amaro holds a PhD in Social Work from the Portuguese Catholic University; a Master’s degree in Communication, Culture and Information Technologies from ISCTE; and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the Lisbon Higher Institute of Social Work. She is an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy at ISCTE-IUL and a research fellow at CIES. She teaches on the Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD programmes in Social Work, the postgraduate programme in Social Work in Health, and the Master’s programme in Disability Studies and Human Rights. Her research interests lie in the areas of social work theory and practice, society, crises and public policy, and social exclusion and poverty. She is a consultant and supervisor in the fields of social planning and evaluation, social intervention and support, and public policies on children and young people. She is the author of books, book chapters and articles in the aforementioned areas.

She is a founding member of the European Association for Research in Social Work and served as vice-president of the European Association of Schools of Social Work.

From 2019 to 2025, she served on the Social Security Institute’s Executive Board, where she holds the post of Director of the Department of Social Development. In this capacity, she has held national-level responsibilities for the implementation and development of public policy in the areas of children and young people; social cooperation and responses; and social intervention and emergency services.

Chaired the National Commission for the National Early Childhood Intervention System (SNIPI), the National Council for Adoption (2024–2026), and the evaluation panel for the Escolhas Programme (2023 edition); served on the National Cooperation Council and the National Council for Migration; on the Commission on Policies for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities; the executive group of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Group for the National Strategy for the Integration of People Experiencing Homelessness; and, amongst others, the Monitoring Committee for the National Strategy to Combat Poverty; she served as national liaison officer for Civil Protection.

She is a consultant for Relational Lab.

She is a member of the Executive Board of the Portuguese Association of Social Workers.