Maria Cristina Miguéns de Sousa Machado was born in Alfeizerão (Alcobaça) in 1967. She is graduated in Law (1991) from the Lisbon University Faculty of Law and Master in Law in the variant of Legal and Political Sciences (2004) from the same institution, where she has been teaching, since 1989, as tutor, assistant and invited assistant of the Legal and Political Sciences Group, in the areas of Constitutional Law, Fundamental Rights, European Union Law and International Law (including the International Protection of Human Rights). She has also taught in the Lisbon University Faculty of Letters in the graduation courses of European Studies and African Studies. She was Legal Advisor to the Municipal Director for Urban Planning and Management at the Lisbon City Council (1992-1993). She served as Advisor to the Ombudsman between 1993 and 2001. From 2005 to 2012 she was, successively, Advisor to the Secretary of State for Regional Planning and Cities and to the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries (XVII and XVIII Constitutional Governments) and Assistant to the Office of the Representative of the Republic for the Autonomous Region of Madeira. Between 2012 and 2021 she joined the Office of Judges of the Constitutional Court, as an Advisor. She currently teaches at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, as an invited assistant. She has been member of the Ombudsman’s Office since June 2022.