Maria Josephina Albano was a crucial figure in the development and professionalization of the field of Social Work in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil since the 1940s. Her influence goes beyond the Brazilian national borders, as her influence in social work was international, particularly in Latin America. She was an important consultant and expert in the different institutions in the hemisphere, especially in the area of social housing. This article explores Albano s professional biography from an initial analysis of her archive, located at the Department of Social Work of PUC-Rio, the institution where she conducted her studies and where she taught and trained generations of social workers over several decades. This work seeks to look at Albano’s trajectory from a transnational perspective, looking forward to contributing to future studies that will recover the centrality of her work.