Cortez was a brilliant Xenoanthropologist back on Earth, specializing in the study of alien cultural development. She was part of The Ambassador Program (TAP) thinking it could create a measurably better life for the Na’vi, though she was also motivated by ambition, wanting to be the first to study their culture up close.

As Na'vi and human relations on Pandora soured, the program started leaning towards military and covert skills to be used in a more confrontational landscape. Yet, Cortez told herself she would try and give the children the best life she could.

Cortez saved the Sarentu children during the evacuation and put them into cryosleep. However, with the TAP facility bombed soon after, she believed the kids dead, and flew to Hell’s Gate where Jake Sully granted her request to stay on Pandora. Having now rediscovered her wards, she has once again assumed the role of a benevolent mentor.