Mara Baumane is a visiting lecturer and a doctoral degree candidate in political science at Riga Stradins University. She also works as corporate sustainability advisor in the banking sector. Previously she has been Senior Economist at Bank of Latvia in charge of International Monetary Fund and EU issues, she has worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia in positions of Press Secretary at the Permanent Representation of Latvia to the EU and as Desk Officer at the Permanent Representation of Latvia to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna. She holds an MA in European Political and Administrative Studies at the College of Europe in Belgium and BSc in Politics and Sociology at the University of Bristol in the UK. Mara Baumane is specializing in the fields of EU political economy and EU climate policy.