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Brazil: Public Health and Community Welfare

Faculty and Staff

Damiana Miranda, Academic Director

Damiana Miranda has a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Arizona. She is also a psychiatrist, with a degree from the Faculdade de Medicina e Saúde Pública at the Universidade Católica de Salvador, Salvador. She has taught graduate courses on cross-cultural psychiatry and public health. She has also been a consultant for several national and international organizations that examine health disparities, and has conducted research projects in the state of Bahia. Damiana has served as a psychiatric resident in the Republic of Cape Verde, Africa, where she helped to create and develop the National Mental Health Program. She has worked in the areas of mental health, psychoanalysis and the management of health facilities and is the author of several articles on themes related to public health and social justice.

Damiana’s deepest passion is around the socioeconomic and health issues of Brazilians of African decent. She views health as a human right and strives through her work to expand the access and improve the quality of health care and health benefits to all Brazilians, without distinction of race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic condition. She believes that the human right to health care is not confined to medical care alone; and recognizes the efficacy of Afro-Brazilian traditional medicine. She brings these perspectives to the SIT program, where she began working as an academic director in 2004.

On a personal level, Damiana is involved in political and socio-cultural activities within the Afro-Brazilian community. She is a descendant of a community Quilombo (maroon community) in Maré Island, where she strives to improve the life conditions of the population. Damiana also supports several Afro-Brazilian socio-political organizations.