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Wilson Center Names Bruna Santos as New Director of Brazil Institute

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Ryan McKenna
Phone: (202) 691-4217
ryan.mckenna@wilsoncenter.org

 

WASHINGTON–The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has named Bruna Santos as its new Director of the Brazil Institute. “I am honored to assume the leadership of the Brazil Institute, an organization that is instrumental in fostering mutual collaboration between Brazil and the United States,” says Santos. “Our two countries share many of the same challenges and there is tremendous opportunity for collaboration to support a Brazilian future where freedom, democratic values, and development strengthen and grow. With an abundance of natural resources and solid foundations for social prosperity and economic progress, this future can—and must—be built.”

“Brazil’s role in the world has never been more important,” said Ambassador Mark Andrew Green, Wilson Center President and CEO. “Bruna’s unique skills and experience will help shape conversations and analysis of Brazil in the crucial months and years to come.”

Before joining the Brazil Institute, Santos served as vice president and innovation director at the National School of Public Administration in Brazil, the country’s leading school of government. Previously, she was a director at Comunitas', a civil society organization created in 2000 to promote social development in Brazil.

Santos is a member of the global network of Eisenhower Fellows and has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University in the School of International and Public Affairs Executive Masters of Public Administration program. She was honored by Apolitical and the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Agile Governance as one of the 50 most influential leaders championing innovation in policy making.

Santos holds a Master's in Public Administration from Columbia University, and a Bachelor's Degree in International Relations from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She served as Program Officer at the Columbia Global Centers in Rio de Janeiro. Santos is a native Portuguese speaker, and is fluent in English and Spanish; she is also proficient in Mandarin.

The Brazil Institute is an authoritative source of research and debate on issues of bilateral concern. It explores key policy challenges facing Brazil as a thriving democracy in the process of social, political, and economic transformation; enhances understanding and cooperation between Brazil and the United States in areas of mutual interest; and fosters society-to-society connections in policy, academia, and business. The Institute’s work forms part of the broader regional framework of the Wilson Center's Latin American Program.

Related Programs

Brazil Institute

The Brazil Institute—the only country-specific policy institution focused on Brazil in Washington—works to foster understanding of Brazil’s complex reality and to support more consequential relations between Brazilian and US institutions in all sectors. The Brazil Institute plays this role by producing independent research and programs that bridge the gap between scholarship and policy, and by serving as a crossroads for leading policymakers, scholars and private sector representatives who are committed to addressing Brazil’s challenges and opportunities.  Read more

Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more