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First Name

Joaquim Benedito

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Short Biography

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Content created by Virtual Intern Bridget Raymundo

Justice Joaquim Barbosa has dedicated his career to public service, the law, and education. Justice Barbosa served as a public servant since age 19. In 1984 he started his career as a federal prosecutor. In 2003 he was named as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the first Afro-Brazilian to hold that position. In 2012 he became Brazil’s Chief Justice.

In addition to his duties on the bench, Justice Barbosa spent more than seventeen years as a part-time law professor at Rio de Janeiro State University teaching students so that they might follow in his footsteps.

In 1999, Justice Barbosa traveled to the United States on the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and built a network in the United States that he would utilize in the decades to come. Justice Barbosa was nominated by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013 and symbolized the promise of a new Brazil committed to multiculturalism and equality. As a jurist he presided over the country’s largest political-corruption trial. Now retired from public service, Justice Barbosa continues his work as a legal consultant.

Justice Joaquim Barbosa, hailed by one Brazilian newsweekly as “the poor boy who changed Brazil,” continues to be a disseminator of knowledge and learning.

Content edited by Sallie Bestul, Regina Navarro-Gomez, and Jenna Williams

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Justice Joaquim Barbosa

Home Country

Brazil

Last name

Barbosa Gomes

IVLP Alumni

Magdalena Waleska Aldana Segura

First Name

Magdalena Waleska

Participant Headshot

Short Biography

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Content created by Virtual Intern Radha Varadan

Growing up in Guatemala, Magdalena Waleska Aldana Segura was often the only female in her physics class. She took her love of science and built a successful career as a university professor teaching physics and mentoring students interested in science-related careers.

Through workshops that have been attended by more than 4,000 high school students and 350 professors, she encourages women’s involvement in fields where they are underrepresented. Aldana Segura credits the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) as a driving force behind her recent activism. She took part in the 2017 #HiddenNoMore IVLP project that connected her with nearly 50 like-minded women in STEAM fields. These contacts from her IVLP have helped take her workshops to the next level, allowed her to organize conferences for children, and provided an opportunity to speak at a prestigious STEAM conference in Chicago.

Her involvement in the Guatemalan Women in Science association (GWSA), the Association for American Advancement of Science (AAAS), and her long career as a university professor ensures that Magdalena Waleska Aldana Segura is illuminating the future of STEAM education by empowering one woman at a time.

Content edited by Sallie Bestul, Regina Navarro-Gomez, and Jenna Williams

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