Manuela Gualdi comes from Rovereto, Trentino Alto Adige: she studied Educational Sciences in Verona and graduated with top marks from the three-year and the master degree courses with a dissertation on alternative economies. She then took two Masters on social management, one in Verona and one in Trento. She is the founder and a collaborator of two Social Promotion Associations in her territory and, in the past three years, she has been working in the solidarity economy sector in Trentino implementing Provincial Law 13/2010 on social responsibility of enterprises.