Joyce is a lawyer licensed in the Philippines and in the State of New York, USA. She obtained her JD with honors from Ateneo de Manila School of Law, Philippines, where she later taught International Environmental and Climate Change Law and Philippine Natural Resources and Environmental Law. She has an MSc in Environment and Development, with distinction, from the University of Edinburgh, UK where she was a Chevening scholar. Prior to joining Dejusticia, she worked with the Asian Development Bank as a consultant on Environmental Law education in 14 countries across South and Southeast Asia. She has also worked as a climate change and disaster management policy specialist at the Ateneo School of Government, where she advised government ministries and legislators on climate change and disaster laws and policies. She was also a member of the Philippine delegation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 21st and 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP21 and COP22), where she worked on the historic Paris Agreement’s climate finance and capacity building provisions.

She is currently a research coordinator focusing on Dejusticia’s international work on climate change and strategic litigation.