Raquel Marta holds a PhD in Social Work from ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute and has lectured widely on social work and related areas at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in Europe and in the United States. Her research focused on creativity, complex thought and vulnerability with a particular focus on professional transformative abilities. Currently, her primary scholarly agenda unites human development and environmental sustainability and is largely concerned with understanding individual vulnerabilities and their linkages with structural environmental inequalities in informal human settlements.

Raquel is a member of Children’s Environments Research Group (CERG), the Center for Human Environments (CHE), at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.