María Gutérrez got her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the City University of New York with a dissertation on the creation of a market for sinks under the Kyoto Protocol.

She has taught Human Ecology and Cultural Anthropology and often works with the UNFCCC secretariat on matters related to adaptation to climate change. She likes long walks, is a student of kyudo (Japanese archery), and has a strange fascination for all things LULUCF and for annotated agendas.