Dra. Maria Filomena Lay Guterres is the Director General of Higher Education and Science of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Culture of Timor-Leste. She has held this position since May 2019 and has worked on the development and implementation of the country's policies related to higher education and science.

She started her professional career in 2000, as a secondary school teacher of Portuguese Leste. In January 2012, she was invited to work at the National Institute of Training of Teachers and Professionals of Education (INFORDEPE), as Vice-Presidente of the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Office. INFORDEPE is the governmental institution responsible for in-service training of teachers for basic and secondary education.

Dra. Maria Filomena Lay Guterres graduated in Curriculum and Educational Technology from Ikip Sonato Dharma University, Yogakarta, in Indonesia, in 1991. in 2007 she graduated from the National University of Timor Lorosa’e, in Dili, Timor-Leste, in Portuguese Language and Lusophone Cultures. In 2008 she concluded her Post-graduation Course in Teaching of Portuguese Language, at the same University, and in 2009 she headed to Portugal to do her Master’s in Training of Teachers, at the University of Lisboa, in Portugal, where she graduated in 2011.

Dra. Maria Filomena is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the Presbyterian Mackenzie University, in S. Paulo, Brazil, and she is developing her thesis on the Training of Teachers of Portuguese in Timor-Leste.