Joana is professor of public policy at Getulio Vargas Foundation. She is specialized in development economics and an expert in impact evaluation of public policies. She worked as the head of research at the Rio de Janeiro State’s Attorney Office (2019-2021) and the head of the Institute of Public Security (ISP) (2015-2018), the government institution responsible for disclosing and analyzing Rio de Janeiro’s crime and violence records. At both positions, Joana led initiatives to improve the use of evidence by Public Security and Criminal Justice agencies, having implemented projects to facilitate data analytics and to improve transparency to citizens.

Joana holds a PhD and a MA in Economics from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). She was Tinker Visiting Professor at Chicago University (2023), Lemann Visiting Public Policy Fellow at Columbia University (2021-2022) and research fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard University (2009-2012). Her research has been published in journals such as the Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Development Economics, Crime Science and the Security Journal.