Carmen is a dedicated public policy and public management practitioner, previously serving as Director for Policy and Institutional Strengthening at the Asia Foundation and a public administration liaison officer for the Office of Prime Minister of Timor-Leste.

Her other roles include President of the Australian Timor-Leste Development Awards Alumni Association and member of the Timor-Leste Policy Leaders Group supported by The Asia Foundation.

She was Adviser to the Prime Minister on public policy and institutional reforms and served as Senior Coordinator to AusAID for governance for development.

Carmen’s passion is to work towards a just and equal society through fair, inclusive public policy formulation and implementation.

She is a recipient of a number of awards, including the Australian Day Awards for outstanding work during Australia’s response to the 2006 humanitarian crisis in Timor- Leste, a 2016 Asia Foundation Development Fellow, a founding member of the Rotaract Club of Dili, East Timor Crisis Reflection Group, and “Hari’i Moris Foun,” a community-based organization for women’s literacy. Currently, she is focusing on a new project to educate the public and raise awareness on public policy through helping policy makers communicate better on current and new policies.