Fernanda Barbosa de Castro is a public policy professional with experience in the implementation of education policies in Brazil. Her work focuses on bridging research and practice to improve public policies and strengthen public services. 
Before joining the University of Oxford, Fernanda worked across Brazilian state governments, civil society organisations and research centres. In the government of the State of São Paulo, she contributed to the expansion of technical and vocational education and training and supported the implementation of the Secondary School Reform. In the third sector, she coordinated the rollout of an online teacher training programme for public school teachers across three Brazilian states, reaching more than 6,000 participants. Before joining the Blavatnik School of Government, Fernanda led research and monitoring teams at NEES (Federal University of Alagoas), designing and managing research to inform and improve the implementation of Pé-de-Meia, a financial incentive programme aimed at improving school attendance and completion among secondary school students, as well as Sistema Gestão Presente, a national digital public infrastructure supporting education policy monitoring in Brazil.
Fernanda holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo and an MSc in Public Policy and Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interests include policy change, inequality and redistributive policies, particularly the role of evidence in shaping social policy design.