Scholars

Ana Cláudia Costa was raised in Belém, State of Pará. She has always been outraged by the unequal opportunities present in Brazil’s large centers and interior. Seeing herself as a bridge between these two worlds, she has been working for over five years on impact projects in public administration and the third sector to promote sustainable economic development and reduce poverty, especially in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil. This desire to contribute to poverty reduction, in addition to her early contact with politics, motivated her to focus on the area of public law and infrastructure, having worked in reference office and several governmental and non-governmental agencies. Being an agent of transformation everywhere she went, she started working in law firms. When she realized she could do more for society, she joined the Secretariat of Economic Development, Mining and Energy of the State of Pará through Vetor Brasil. Subsequently, she was invited to be Assistant Secretary of Social Assistance. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ana Cláudia coordinated support projects for four states in the Planning and Health Secretariats to optimize decision-making from data analysis. Ana Cláudia is currently a candidate of the Master in Public Policy program at Insper and a J.D. Bachelor of Law from Fundação Getulio Vargas – FGV Direito Rio. She is a Vetor Brasil alumna and World Bank Youth Summit delegate.

Daniela Toda has a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, a Master’s degree in Education, and twelve years of experience in education, especially in teacher training. She lives in Rondônia, Brazil, and is interested in sustainable development, education and inclusion.

Inaê Brandão is a communicator and journalist born and educated in the Brazilian Amazon. She has been working in the field since she began her studies in Social Communication at the Federal University of Roraima, where she also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Law. Currently, she works as a communications coordinator at Conservation International (CI), where she uses her skills to strengthen actions and policies for nature conservation and the empowerment of indigenous and traditional Brazilian communities. At CI, she executes communications work on several fronts: forest restoration, strengthening of indigenous communities, sustainable production, tourism, and fishing, among others. Previously, she worked as a communicator for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on the Venezuelan migration crisis. She worked producing content on children and adolescents’ rights, strengthening local organizations and partners and helping to spread vital information to the migrant and refugee community. Inaê began her career in communications working for four years at the G1 news portal, one of the largest in the country, producing news from the region for a national audience. She has ten years of experience as a volunteer teaching children and teenagers. With these years of experience, Inaê has developed strong communication skills and interpersonal relationships, as well the ability to work in adverse situations and the will to use her abilities to make a difference in people’s lives. Inaê is interested in human rights and considers the climate crisis one of the most urgent threats to their proper fulfillment.

Jean Roberto Luz da Silva has two years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) in Brazil. As an assistant researcher, he created a virtual self-access learning center that reached more than one hundred thousand language learners in digital settings under the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) program. Then, Jean was acknowledged with an Academic Laureate from UFPA. He works with two community-based organizations to advance education, culture, and youth leadership. Jean is a volunteer in Mapa Educação—a social movement that enables young leaders to promote changes toward education needs and quality while acting closely with representatives elected by the people. He is also the vice-coordinator of the US-Brazil Exchange Alumni Association in Pará, where he works to spread American initiatives on education, culture, and social entrepreneurship to foster new perspectives for young people in Pará’s capital, Belém City. Jean has volunteered as a peer educator on teacher training initiatives promoted by the US Department of State in Brazil. Through these experiences, he developed strong project coordination, youth mentoring, and consulting skills. Jean enjoys focusing on the topics of language learning and teaching, technological development, and teaching development. He has a strong commitment to underserved people’s empowerment.

Júlia Regina Gabriel has six years of experience in the nonprofit sector and seven years of experience in business consultancy. Júlia has a Bachelor’s degree from the State University of Amazonas. She is determined to fight for social causes such as economic empowerment, women entrepreneurship, and education assessment. While working and studying, Julia volunteered at the Tchibum Institute. She led several groups of volunteers, organized events to raise funds to needy institutions of various causes, and negotiated with companies to get free services and donations to volunteer activities. Later, Julia joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, aiming to motivate Amazonas teenagers and young adults to engage in volunteer activities. She left her job at Tchibum Institute as Vice-President to start Urban Hero, her social startup to unite donors and institutions in need. As a result of working with NGOs and small social projects, Julia realized volunteers needed background in management to evolve their projects, so she started the School of Heroes, free workshops for social entrepreneurs and volunteers to learn how to improve their projects. Presently, she is Director at CDL Jovem, an association whose principal goal is Economic Empowerment. In her current role, Julia has created the Pink Wave, a group that focuses on uniting, developing, and empowering female entrepreneurs. She plans to evaluate her work with women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment in CDL Jovem and improve Urban Hero as a disruptive social project.

Marcos Melo works as Campaigns Manager at All Out, a global movement for the rights of LGBT+ people, and has three years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He has interned in seven different public agencies, enabling him to improve his knowledge in different areas and to be invited to the position of Legal Advisor at the Federal Prosecutor Service, where he worked for five years on environmental and anti-corruption defense. He is the Co-Founder, President, and Communications Director of Actum Brazil, an organization focused on fighting regional inequalities, developing, and empowering young people in the Amazon region. Marcos works continuously on human rights and social inclusion issues, having represented Brazil as a Global Ambassador of Youth Opportunities, one of the largest platforms with free access to international opportunities for young people. He has since become one of the organization’s Regional Coordinators, and he coordinates 14 young leaders from Latin America.

Orlando Figueiredo Nascimento was born in Soure, on the Island of Marajó in Brazil. He has been teaching English in public schools for eleven years and has faced the challenges of building a more equal society through education. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Teaching the English Language from Universidade Federal do Pará, in Soure, Pará, Brazil, where he also worked as a substitute professor for two years. After that role, he took part in the PDPI Brazil English Teachers Program at Temple University, Philadelphia. Currently he is a school teacher in a public school in Soure, where he has been working for eleven years. He has proven to be capable of developing strong project coordination, planning, monitoring, implementation, reporting, and evaluation skills from a perspective where education acts as a vital instrument to change the social reality of people. Throughout his career, Orlando has followed the legacy of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. He believes that teaching is all about discussing and promoting critical thinking on topics that matter such as education development, environmental conservation, social justice, equity, social and racial equality.

Rebecca Castello is a public employee at the Federal University of Pará, where she has been an administrator for eight years. She has worked in nonprofit sector for over three years as a volunteer. She obtained a PhD in Social and Environmental Development from the Center of Higher Amazonian Studies in Brazil, focusing her studies on public university management. She also has an MBA in entrepreneurial education from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro-PUC, as well as in public and people management. She works in social projects in her own community, organizing events and actions focused on the distribution of food and clothing in areas with vulnerable people, assisting newcomers in nursing homes, and distributing toys to low-income children. She participates as the manager of a start-up project that aims to reduce food waste in the Brazilian Amazon region, combining sustainable development and greater access to low-cost food for the local population. In addition, she has worked in an institution for children for adoption, where she developed storytelling and children’s games. Through these experiences and her academic background, she has developed skills in project management, monitoring and evaluation, and research, always focusing on sustainable development, economic development and philanthropy aimed at distributing food to low-income people.