Irene de Amaral is currently responsible for the management of Casa da Saudade Library, the Portuguese Branch of the New Bedford Free Public Library.
She is a Luso-American who, throughout her life, has had the privilege of studying and working in both Portugal and the United States. She holds a Ph. D. in Luso-Afro-Brazilian Studies from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In the U.S., she has taught Portuguese and Lusophone cultures in different contexts and institutions for more than two decades, but her career in education expands to Portugal as a high school teacher and administrator, after completing a B.A. in French and Portuguese Studies at Universidade dos Açores and an M.A. in Pedagogical Supervision at Universidade de Aveiro.