In 2021, I completed the IB CAT1 training programme for teaching global politics. I qualified as a classroom teacher via the Teach First leadership programme in 2016, after working for two years teaching MFL (Spanish and French) at a large secondary school in Yorkshire and completing my PGCE with Teach First degree at Sheffield Hallam University. Prior to this, I worked for a decade with disadvantaged youth in Rio de Janeiro, mentoring and managing cultural programmes in favelas. Between 2005-2008, I worked as an international coordinator for a successful NGO called AfroReggae, leading youth delegations to perform at the Barbican Centre, Contacting the World (an international youth theatre festival) and the Hanover Theatre festival in Germany.

I have more than two decades of experience working to promote the rights of disadvantaged communities. In 2019, I mobilised and organised a team of international volunteers to build a world-class skatepark in a favela. In 2011, I received an MBE for "services to human rights and community development in Rio de Janeiro". I am the author of two books about Brazil; 'Nothing by Accident' (2020) and 'Culture is Our Weapon' (2010). I am fascinated by the way the world fits together, and in 2013 I completed a Master of Studies at Cambridge University, which helped me to learn more about the matter!

I speak four languages (French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) as well as English. In 2009, I joined forces with a TED prize-winner, the French artist JR, to work on his global 'Women are Heroes' project. I also have worked for eight years at Amnesty International's International Secretariat, focussing on Latin America and the Caribbean. I am a life-long learner who enjoys studying as much as teaching. I like finding approaches to learning that help students to think outside the box, finding new ways to interpret the world beyond our front door. In my spare time, I am a skateboarder, reader, writer and film buff!