Third class of Lemann Fellows comes into residence at Harvard

The Harvard University Brazil Studies Program at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) recently welcomed its third class of Lemann Fellows.

Funded by a generous gift from Jorge Paulo Lemann ’61, the Lemann Fellowships afford Brazilians who work or aspire to work as professionals in public health, public policy, or education the opportunity for advanced study and training through a degree program or an executive education program at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), or Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). The aim of the fellowship program is to help build a stronger, more effective public sector in Brazil. Eligible incoming students automatically participate in the annual selection process for the Lemann Fellowships following their admission. The University Committee on General Scholarships awards the fellowships.

Margot Gill, administrative dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), welcomed the group of fellows.

“The Lemann Fellows program attracts top students from Brazil to Harvard and, in the process, enhances diversity at the University and contributes to building a cohort of Harvard-trained professionals from Brazil in these critical areas of public service,” said Gill.

These fellowships may also be awarded to students of any nationality at the GSAS whose study and dissertations focus on an aspect of Brazil. According to Merilee Grindle, director of DRCLAS, “The Lemann family gift to the University guarantees the permanence of this fellowship program, and it is already having a significant impact in Brazil and at Harvard through the ability to attract very impressive students to prepare for careers in public service.”

The 2008-09 Lemann Fellows

Eduardo de Campos Queiroz will be a Lemann Fellow in the Edward S. Mason Program at the Kennedy School. Prior to being accepted to HKS he studied at the Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo and worked for Outward Bound in both Brazil and Mexico. While completing a master’s in public administration, he will focus on his interests in collaborative governance and leadership in public service and on building effective partnerships among government, nonprofit, and private sectors — especially in the area of education.

Fabio Tran is currently pursuing a master’s in public administration at the Kennedy School concurrent with a master’s in business administration at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. His plan of study at HKS focuses on course work that can contribute to his interest in working to foster growth and development in emerging economies through hybrid public-private solutions. Previously, Tran worked for five years at A.T. Kearney Management Consultants, supporting government and private companies in strategic and finance issues in South America.

Francisco O.G. Almendra is in the second year of the master’s in public administration in international development program at the Kennedy School. Holding a bachelor’s degree in economics from Instituto Brasileiro de Mercados Capitais in Rio de Janeiro, and with extensive professional experience in Brazil, China, and South Africa, Almendra’s main interest is in education policy as an engine to development in Brazil.

Frederico Meinberg F. de Morais will pursue a master’s in public administration in international development at the Kennedy School. After four years working in computational mathematics at Wolfram Research in Germany, he arrives in Cambridge seeking to advance his interests in economic policymaking, political economy of trade and financial flows, and data analysis.

Gisela Gasparian Gosling will pursue her master’s in public administration in international development at the Kennedy School. Inspired by her experience in policy-related consulting at McKinsey, Gosling’s goals include developing an expertise in public policy in Brazil and finding ways to leverage global knowledge to improve the performance of local government institutions in Brazil.

Graziella da Silva is in her sixth year at GSAS and is currently working on her dissertation in sociology, focusing on how black professionals in Brazil and South Africa construct their racial and class identification in light of the changes in racial order that have affected the two societies in recent decades. As a Lemann Fellow, she is in Rio de Janeiro for the academic year, conducting follow-up interviews with her respondents and collecting and analyzing data.

Leonardo Almeida Bursztyn is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Economics Department. He is spending the fall semester in Brazil researching the significant role that education plays in the economic development process. Bursztyn will conduct a project with 1,000 families in the Brazilian Federal District that will have important public policy implications in terms of the design and targeting of social programs in developing countries.

Maryam Gharavi, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in comparative literature, is working on a project that examines discourses of modernity and modernization under Fascist Brazilian regimes of the late 20th century. She is conducting research and fieldwork in Brazil for the academic year as a Lemann Fellow. Her research focuses on oppositional discourses and transgressive acts by artists in this period in relation to the Brazilian state’s agenda of technological and architectural “progress.”

Maurilio Santana Junior will pursue a master’s in public administration in International Development at the Kennedy School. Trained as a lawyer by the Federal University of Parana, Santana worked as a manager in Caixa Econômica Federal, a Brazilian publicly owned bank that is actively engaged in providing financial market access to low-income households. His interests include microcredit and strategic planning to foster Brazil’s development.

Ridalva Dias Martins Felzemburgh is a Ph.D. student in investigative medicine at the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz in Salvador. She attended the 2008 summer program in clinical effectiveness, at HSPH, and her goal is to contribute to addressing the health needs of impoverished communities, particularly in urban favelas in Brazil.