Dr. Maria Antonieta "Antoinette" Nestor has a background in Public Interest Law, Community Economic Development Law and Policy, journalism and is passionate about the environment and local communities. She completed her PhD at Trinity College Dublin where she specialised in community economic development lawyering. She also holds a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) from University College Dublin and an LLM from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA David J Epstein Programme in Public Interest Law & Policy). She is also a trained legal interpreter and translator and holds a diploma in journalism. 

She is a Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies at Lucy Cavendish College, Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, an Associate Fellow at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) and Secretariat member at the Climate Law and Governance Initiative (CLGI). She is also a member of IUCN-WCEL (World Commission on Environmental Law). 

Her main research interests focus on the intersections between public interest law, access to justice, community economic development, sustainability, and the environment, linking private law (particularly property law), planning, environmental and international law to combat urban poverty and redress social exclusion.