Barbara Ferreira Santos is an award-winning Brazilian journalist with over a decade of experience in international multimedia journalism. She has reported extensively on Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa, as well as on Brazil, Portugal, and the United States.

Currently based in Washington, D.C., she works as a project coordinator at the Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute, managing projects celebrating the 2024 bicentennial of Brazil-U.S. relations.

Previously, Barbara worked as a journalist at Voice of America (VOA), a U.S. public broadcaster that provides news in over 40 languages to more than 326 million people worldwide. At VOA, she developed the organization’s first TV programs for Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde. She has also contributed to major media outlets in Brazil, producing impactful investigations and receiving prestigious awards, including the Prêmio Estácio de Jornalismo 2014 and the Prêmio Andifes de Jornalismo 2014 for education reporting.

Barbara is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, and is currently learning French and Arabic. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Faculdade Cásper Líbero, a leading communications university in Brazil, and has completed graduate certificate programs in Media and Global Communications at the University of California, Irvine, and in Journalism at the University of Navarra in Spain.

Barbara is the recipient of the 2024 Edward Weintal Foreign Service Scholarship from Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. She aims to pursue a career in diplomacy upon graduating from Georgetown’s Master of Science in Foreign Service program, with a focus on South-South cooperation.