Our movement is going through major changes as we devise new compass points and discuss new governance models. One such change --that was highlighted in the strategy process-- has been the importance of empowering voices from the Global South and marginalized communities in the Global North. This candidacy arises to some extent from this process.
About me:
I want to change the world to make it fairer and more democratic, and more aligned with a radical understanding of social justice. This is the exact vision which led me when I was 14 years old to make my first edits on Wikipedia in Portuguese, in 2007, and that has oriented my engagement with the movement ever since.
I am currently the vice-chair of the Brazilian affiliate Wiki Movimento Brasil and have served as its liaison with the WMF. I am especially active in our diversity and our communications committees and our projects around decolonization, and have been involved at different periods with other affiliates, especially Wiki Project Med, as a former board member. Wikipedia in Portuguese is my home wiki. My volunteer time availability is compatible with expected workload as a Wikimedia trustee.
I live in Brazil and work as a physician in impoverished neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro. I am also a professor at the School of Medicine at the Estácio de Sá University. I am an activist in the movement for access to essential medicines and for universal health coverage.
I am a gay man and an active supporter of LGBTQIA+ rights in my home country.
About my goals:
To fulfill our mission we need to move towards an architecture and a governance system that ensures greater diversity of users and content. We have progressed in envisioning this system; we now need to make sure decision-making processes are empowering, meaningful and equitable for all.
We need more Wikimedians from the Global South and from marginalized communities in the Global North on key movement instances, including the Board of Trustees. Greater diversity will contribute to fostering more engagement from communities and demographics that have been systematically disempowered in our movement; it will also be associated with the emergence of new local and regional leadership that we need as we move towards a more decentralized structure. Greater diversity will also contribute to increasing accountability and devising innovative community consultation designs.
To sum up, my goal as a trustee is to contribute to bring about the vision we have laid out in the Movement Strategy, knowing that the Wikimedia Foundation should lead by example.
Top 3 Board priorities
1. Ensure Equity in Decision-making.
2. Invest in Skills and Leadership Development.
3. Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement.
Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities
1. Ensure empowered participatory governance.
2. Ensure diversity and equity in decision making processes.
3. Defend an internet for and from all, in which we invest in democratizing the access to and production of knowledge, empowering Global South communities and marginalized communities in the Global North.
Verification
Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee
Wikimedia experience.
The candidate is a dedicated contributor to the Wikimedia movement. Eligible contributions include: contributions to the Wikimedia projects, membership in a Wikimedia organization or affiliate, activities as a Wikimedia movement organizer, or participation with a Wikimedia movement ally organization.
10+ years: I first edited Wikipedia when I was 14 years old, in 2007. I have served in many editorial capacities on Wikipedia in Portuguese. I am a founding member of Wiki Movimento Brasil and Wiki Project Med as well.
Board experience.
The candidate has served on the board of trustees/directors or other similar governing body of a nationally- or globally-focused organization (non-profit, for-profit, or governmental).
2-5: I have served as Wiki Movimento Brasil's vice-chair since 2017. This is currently the only affiliate in Brazil, a user group in the process of applying for chapter recognition.
Executive experience = <1 year: I do not have executive experience in an organization of the same level of complexity and scope of the Wikimedia Foundation. My activity has mostly been geared towards grassroots organizing in Brazilian impoverished communities, particularly Rocinha, the largest favela in Brazil.
Executive experience.
The candidate has worked at an executive level for an organization, department, or project of comparable (or greater) size, complexity, and scope to the Wikimedia Foundation.
Subject matter expertise.
The candidate has worked or significantly volunteered in an area relevant to the work of the Foundation and the Board. Such areas will be determined on an annual basis and may include areas such as Global movement building and community organization, enterprise-level platform technology and/or product development, public policy and the law, knowledge sector (e.g., academia/GLAM/education), human rights and social justice, open Internet/free and open source software, organizational strategy and management, finance and financial oversight, non-profit fundraising, human resources, board governance.
10+ years: I have been a social-justice and human-right activist in all periods in my life. I was a leader in the student movement. I have become a physician to work with the urban poor. As a university professor, I aim at engaging students to also understand medicine as a social justice practice. I have joined the Wikimedia movement because all knowledge matters and is transformative.
Diversity: Background
The candidate belongs or belonged to a group that has faced historical discrimination and underrepresentation in structures of power (related to, for example, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ+ identity, social class, economic status, or caste).
Yes.
Diversity: Geography
The candidate would contribute to the overall geographic diversity of the Board of Trustees, based on the geographic regions where they have lived.
Yes.
Diversity: Language
The candidate is a native speaker of a language other than English.
Yes.
Diversity: Political system experience
The candidate has substantial experience living in and/or working to share knowledge in a non-democratic, state-censoring, or repressive context.
Yes. When I was born Brazil had recently transitioned to becoming a democracy, so I have no direct experience with the authoritarian regime period. Nevertheless, as I have dedicated my life to working on Brazilian favelas, where police violence is the norm and where democracy is an abstraction, I do feel I carry a strong understanding of what it means to live in a repressive context.
Verified