Dr Maria Ortuoste is currently an associate professor of political science at California State University East Bay.

She has 20 years of research experience in both government and academic settings. She has around 10 years of policy experience with the Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies, the research arm of the Philippines’ Foreign Service Institute.  In that capacity, she wrote strategic studies and policy papers on Philippine foreign policy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations, as well as papers on specific issues such as the South China Sea, peacekeeping, proliferation of conventional arms and nuclear weapons, the US alliance system and human rights.

In the academic field, she has published several articles on the nexus of domestic and regional institutions in Southeast Asia, democratisation and human rights, Timor-Leste, the South China Sea, and the impact of social media on governance.