Rita is a scientist holding a M.Sc. degree in “Marine Environmental Sciences and Oceanography” from Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, and a Ph.D. degree in “Science and management of climate change” from Ca’ Foscari University, Venice.

She works on the development of services for operational products uptake from different communities, from coast guards to private companies.

She is the Service Manager of the CMEMS Mediterranean and Black Sea Monitoring and Forecasting Centers.
She has been involved as Scientific Responsible or Project Manager in a multitude of international projects such as Blue Cloud, EMOD-PACE, EMODnet MedSea Checkpoint , EUCISE2020, AMAre, ETC/ICM, DeFishGear.

Since 2014, she is a lecturer in “Applications and Services in Operational Oceanography” at University of Malta for the Master of Science in Applied Oceanography.

She joined to different oceanographic research cruises in order to collect and analyze marine observational data.
Currently at CMCC, she is the deputy director of the Ocean Predictions and Applications (OPA) Division and the responsible of the Operational Prediction Group.