Trainer Bios

Daniela Lyra Cardoso is a teacher trainer, online moderator, and material designer who holds the title of Educational Technology Specialist at the first public bilingual makerspace in Brazil. Committed to advancing education, she envisions public learning environments, in Brazil, were people could connect with ideas, other people and tools to solve challenges of the contemporary world. Currently, Daniela works in close collaboration with the American Embassy to implement the project Achieving 21st Century Skills – a Mission Brazil American Spaces education initiative that provides youth with collaborative learning experiences to enhance the acquisition of the English language and promote education, innovation, entrepreneurship and social inclusion with a focus on STEAM. For the past four years, Daniela has been providing students and faculty in 27 American Spaces (BNCs) in Brazil with leadership and training for current and emerging education technologies. She has helped six BNCs turn their school libraries into dynamic, innovative spaces. Passionate about the Maker Movement in educational settings, Daniela took a Harvard course – Maker-Centered Learning: Empowering Young People to Shape Their Worlds, and since then, in collaboration with the American Embassy and makerspace team, has been implementing Maker Centered Pedagogy to instructional design in public and private schools. A seasoned teacher, Daniela uses her classroom experience to better develop courses and workshops that give public school students and teachers access to opportunities to create purposeful solutions. Her goal is to promote community integration around unique goals, with the use of analog and digital tools – prototyping solutions, developing creative competence, building knowledge in the STEAM area and gaining confidence in the use of contemporary technologies and methodologies to recreate our worlds.

Soraya Lacerda has a degree in Information Science and consider herself an educator at heart. She has been working at Casa Thomas Jefferson since 2015, when she was invited to design, implement and supervise the first Makerspace within an educational institution in Brasilia. In addition to coordinating and managing the space, she is one of CTJ’s representatives in the Achieving 21st Century Skills educational project, since 2015, conducted by several Brazilian Binational Centers, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State and the Smithsonian Institute. For the project, Soraya coordinates in close partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Brazil the interdisciplinary team of CTJ Makerspace to design innovative projects, programs and narratives for the community in general, for public and private schools, sharing them with the Brazilian network of Binational Centers / American Spaces. The project also fosters the immersion and motivation of managers and educators in active learning experiences, co-constructed by the interaction and collaboration of all agents involved. She believes in an active and innovative educational system and also that the narratives implemented with their young students – of public or private schools – develop their character, along with essential skills to be an active professional in the 21st century scenario: collaboration, creativity, problem solving. Her work in the project gave her experience with active methodologies (maker-centered learning, challenge-based learning and project-based learning) and design thinking.

Natália is a data journalist and media entrepreneur who leads Open Knowledge Brazil. She has co-founded the digital magazine “Gênero e Número” and the Brazilian chapter of the data-driven news agency J++. Natalia also works as an instructor and lecturer in topics related to digital methods, open data and access to information and has already trained professionals in several Brazilian organizations, including Editora Abril and Folha de S. Paulo. She teaches in the postgraduate courses on Digital Journalism at PUC-RS and IESB and works as a teacher assistant in courses for journalists in the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, a project from Texas University. She holds a Master Degree in Communications and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a specialization in Digital Strategy from the Pompeu Fabra University.

Renata Duarte is a design researcher and brand strategist with broad experience across many industries. As a Design Researcher at IDEO, Rey blends an expertise on innovative research methods with branding and storytelling to inform design strategies, with a passion for understanding people’s actual feelings, thoughts and their implicit needs. She’s inspired by the intersection of consumer behavior, cultural context, and brand and finding ways to enhance it. Over the last 18 years, Rey’s taken on many roles—she has had the opportunity to experience, and fall in love with all sides of brand and business. She’s taken key roles in strategic planning, communication, branding, research and innovation projects at creative and full-service agencies, brand experience and consultancy shops and has worked with many of the most important brands in Brazil as well as multinationals based in the US and Europe. Throughout all of her work, Rey maintains a focus on designing to build strong relationships between consumers and brands. Favorite projects have ranged from understanding the needs of women entrepreneurs, to helping translate Brazilian culture to the rest of the world, from elucidating the key elements that make a compelling cross-channel media narrative, to designing ways to inspire tweens to move more and eat healthier. Before joining IDEO, Rey led the strategy team for Itaú at DM9DDB – one of the most valuable, respected, and beloved banking brands in Brazil.

Reuben Brenner-Adams is an award-winning game designer and interactive developer based in Washington, D.C. Employed by the Smithsonian Institution, Reuben creates games, apps, and other interactive digital media for use in K-8 science classrooms and beyond. Reuben is a voting member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a member of the Federal Games Guild, and a board member for the Washington, D.C. chapter of the International Game Developers Association.

Mariana Santos is a Portuguese girl who wants to change the world, and is working on it right now as the Founder and CEO of Chicas Poderosas, a global community that promotes female leadership and generates knowledge to shape the future of the media, one chica at a time. She started this project started five years ago at Stanford. She’s a visual storyteller who did groundbreaking work as a member of the interactive team at The Guardian in London. A trained animator, she pioneered the newsroom’s use of motion graphics to make data stories more compelling. She leads design thinking workshops to increase multidisciplinary approach to storytelling, and she is a leader in community transformation and digital training.

In addition to running Chicas Poderosas, Mariana also is a public speaker and moderator on media innovation, women empowerment through technology and digital leadership, as well as alumni of the JSK Journalism Knight Fellowship at Stanford, 2015.

Until 2016, she was the Director of Interactive and animation at Fusion Media, a joint-venture between Univision and Disney ABC. She was also the the Knight Chair of Innovation at Florida International University in 2015/16 and a 2014 ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellow, where she worked all across Latin America in major newsrooms and with independent journalists.

Leandro Biazon is an electrical engineer that has been developing software for educational purposes since 2009, when he graduated from University of São Paulo. As an engineer at LSI-TEC he worked in the development of web applications for science fairs, educational games for mobile devices and interactive installations for science museums, among other projects. He’s passionate about sharing technical skills with people all ages and from diverse backgrounds, and has been conducting workshops about programming and electronics for students and teachers in the last ten years. In 2017 he participated in the creation of Code IoT,  a Brazilian MOOC about the foundational technologies for the Internet of Things.

Gustavo is Ph.D. student at College of Education at USP (University of Sao Paulo), where he studies STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics) education and Public Policies in Education. He holds two academic degrees: Portuguese Language Teaching and Biology, both obtained at Unicamp (University of Campinas). He also holds a master degree in Science Education obtained at Biology Institute of Unicamp, with an internship at the University of Washington (US). He worked with STEM organizations for underrepresented minorities in his master research. He was the head of a nonprofit organization in Campinas that promotes engagement for science education in public schools. As the leader of the organization, he had the opportunity to coordinate a team of educators and several public schools. During his internship in the US, he had the opportunity to work with underrepresented minorities in STEM, develop activities such as professional development for teachers, create pedagogical content and attend seminars all over the Washington State. He is also a fellow of the YLAI (Young Leaders of Americas Initiative) program from the US Department of State. He is the author of scientific papers, scientific dissemination articles and four textbooks. Main areas of activity: educational projects, educational technologies, STEM Education and teacher training.

Ulrich Norbisrath, PhD has more than 20 years of industrial and academic experience in Software Engineering and Systems Integration. He has supported the start-up of several software development companies as well as consulted tech companies in questions of Systems Integration, Internet of Things (IoT), and Mobile and Cloud Computing. He provides a deep technical understanding of mobile technologies and their integration with cloud services — both from an academic as well as an industrial perspective. He raised significant grants on Cloud, Mobile, and High Performance Computing at universities in Europe and Central Asia. He taught at universities in Germany, Austria, Germany, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Singapore, and the US.