[3] Her post earned the ire of Malacañang with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin issuing a statement saying that "she clearly does not support the administration and its programs for nation-building.

[5] Magno is a tenured associate professor[6] in the University of the Philippines School of Economics before she was seconded to the Department of Finance to serve as undersecretary under the leadership of Secretary Benjamin Diokno.

She was also a member of the world renowned UP Concert Chorus[10] and was part of the 1996 international touring batch of Dean Reynaldo Paguio.

In 2005, Magno was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship for a PhD in law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, with a dissertation examining how pharmaceutical companies influence doctors' decisions on prescribing medication.

She has more than twenty years of experience in research and policy work with the public and the private sector including local and international agencies.

Her research and interests focus on public finance; law, health, institutional, and resource economics; and industry regulation.

Her publications include discussions on health, pharmaceutical competition and access to medicine,[12][13] [14] corruption,[15] foreign investments,[16] decentralization and local public finance,[17][18][19] transportation policy,[20] energy and mining,[21][22][23] civic space and human rights,[15][24] natural resources,[25] economic and social development,[26][27] mental health and spirituality,[28] and the court system.