Iris is a chemical engineer with over six years of process and quality engineering experience in a high-volume manufacturing industry. She has also spent five years of scientific research on advanced wastewater treatment technologies and has six publications on the topic in peer-reviewed journals.

She continues to be active in the scientific community by being an occasional reviewer for Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology journal.

A dual citizen of Finland and the Philippines, Iris speaks Filipino, English, Finnish, and Swedish.