Biography

Ninety percent of a child's brain develops by age five and the brain's neural architecture is set by age six. Investment in quality early education services (including parenting programs) has a higher economic and social return than investment in education services at any other age. And yet, early education services remain chronically undervalued, underfunded and underexplored. For my dissertation at Cambridge University, I plan to address these issues by designing a play-based parenting intervention that helps young children develop key higher cognitive capacities, called executive functions. My hope is that this intervention addresses gaps in the research and can be integrated seamlessly into early childhood programming across the health, education, and social service sectors in Brazil and elsewhere. Prior to Cambridge, I worked at the Harvard David Rockefeller Center in Brazil where I led strategy efforts and content re-design of Harvard's Certificate for Early Education Leadership. I also worked as a fellow with the Mayor of Baton Rouge on the city's Cradle to K Parenting Program and lived in Belo Horizonte, Brazil as a Fulbright scholar. I graduated with a Masters in International Education Policy from Harvard in 2019.

Previous Education

Harvard University International Education Policy 2019
Boston College Secondary Education, History 2016