Fernanda Lopes

Fernanda Lopes

Member

Fernanda Lopes is a biologist, with a master’s degree and PhD in Public Health from the University of São Paulo (USP), specializing in epidemiology.

She is currently a director of the Program Baobá Fund for Racial Equity. She is the owner of Niketche: Transformando Realidades, which performs specialized consultancies in health and human rights, development and racial and gender equity. She is an anti-racist activist and works for women’s rights, operating in the fields of health and reproductive rights; she confronts racism and development with equity and, more recently, has been dedicated to the discussion about reproductive justice.She recently provided consultancy services to the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), Amnesty International – Brazil Office and the Baobá Fund. For 11 years, she worked at the United Nations Population Fund in Brazil (UNFPA), acting as an Auxiliary Representative and coordinator of the programmatic actions of the institution in Brazil; she was also a Program Officer in Reproductive Health and Rights and an Advisor for HIV/AIDS.

She was a coordinator of the health actions of the Program to Combat Institutional Racism (PCRI), which was an initiative that brought together the Brazilian Government and Agencies from the United Nations System, with support from the Ministry of the British Government for International Development (DFID).

She is an organizer of specialized books, and the author of scientific articles and opinion articles, among others. She was also a researcher at the Center of Studies for the Prevention of AIDS at the University of São Paulo; a national health advisor; a member of the Population and Society team from the Brazilian Planning Center, CEBRAP, and of the Technical Committee on Health of the Black Population for the Ministry of Health. Her research areas include: health of the black population; racism and iniquities in health; and vulnerability and HIV/AIDS. She is currently a Member of the Working Group on Racism and Health of the Brazilian Public Health Association (ABRASCO).