Dr. Portman graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a B.Sc. in Political Economy of Natural Resources, the Technion with an M.Sc. in Urban and Regional Planning (’91) and the University of Massachusetts with a doctorate in Public Policy (’07). She held a two-year postdoctoral fellow position at the Marine Policy Center of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Cape Cod, USA (2007-09).
Currently, her research focuses on aspects of integrated coastal zone management, marine spatial planning, management of marine protected areas, marine litter from land-based sources, green building, water sensitive planning and generally on governance of the land-sea interface.
She heads the MarCoast Ecosystem Integration Lab and is the author of a book entitled 'Environmental Planning for Oceans and Coasts: Tools, Methods and Technologies' (Springer, 2016) and over 40 referred journal articles and other publications.
In addition to Dr. Portman’s academic experience, she held leading positions in public sector environmental agencies and organizations for over 15 years. She is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Kiel Marine Sciences, a leading academic and research program of Christian Albrechts University located in Kiel, Germany.