Cecilia Gebara Zahran was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, and always knew she wanted to help foster positive change in her country. 

Cecilia graduated in International Relations from the University of São Paulo and had an exchange semester at the University of Edinburgh. She has worked for the past the Lemann Foundation for the past four and a half years, a non-profit focused on improving Brazil by developing its people. She has mainly worked on the theme of Public Sector Leadership, leading knowledge production to support the public debate and engaging with public and third-sector organisations around the topic.

Her main interests are people management policies in the public sector and their intersection with gender policies.

Cecilia is a Chevening Scholar.