M. Cecilia is currently affiliated with the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland (UMD) in the United States, and previously worked in the Department of Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She holds a PhD in Finance from the Swiss Finance Institute and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley during her graduate studies. Prior to her academic career, Maria Cecilia also worked as a consultant in forensic finance in international arbitration procedures.