Manalo has been showing her work internationally since 1999. She received her MFA in Painting from Yale University, a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her work has been shown at the McLean Project for the Arts, Arlington Art Center, Maryland Art Place, the Katzen Arts Center, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. She was featured in New American Paintings in 2004 and 2006 and was awarded a Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 2008 and 2009 with support from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation for 2009. She currently is an Assistant Professor at American University’s Art Department where she began teaching as an Adunct in 2001. Her work is a part of numerous private and public collections including the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, the US Embassies in Bulgaria, Kazakhtsan and Tibet to name a few. She is an advocate for the process of making art and fostering a sense of community through her award winning blog-turned-webzine, The Studio Visit, featuring artists in their studios: www.thestudiovisit.com. Her work is represented in Washington D.C. by Addison Ripley Fine Art.