Veriene Melo

Veriene Melo is a research assistant with the Program on Poverty and Governance at CDDRL. She graduated from Stanford in June 2012 with an MA in Latin American Studies, where she was a fellow from the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho Foundation. She is a first-year PhD Student in Social Science and Comparative Education and UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS) and a Fellow from the Lemann foundation, a non-profit organization that is helping train a generation of leaders with the commitment to assist in improving public education in Brazil. She also holds a BA with honors in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Colorado Denver.

Veriene was born and raised in the Baixada Fluminense in Rio and is passionate about issues of social justice, education equity and development in the Latin America region, especially in her home country of Brazil. She works on the project about the UPP policing program and the Pacification of favelas taking place in Rio de Janeiro. In the future, she hopes to explore opportunities for educational development for youth at risk living in the city, with a focus on the impact of criminal violence on human development in marginalized communities in the Baixada and favelas under the Pacification process.