Brenda Brito is from Belém, in Northern Brazil. She holds a Law Degree from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), a Master of the Science of Law (JSM’08) degree at Stanford Law School and she is currently in the first year of the Doctor of Science of Law Program (JSD) at Stanford. Since 2004 she has worked as a researcher at Imazon (Amazon Institute of People and the Environment), a nongovernmental organization focused in environmental research in the Brazilian Amazon, where she coordinates the climate change program. She has also served as Executive Director of Imazon between 2009 and July 2012.

Brenda has focused her research activities in three main issues: enforcement of environmental laws to protect the forest; improvement of land laws and land administration in the Amazon and on actions and mechanisms to reduce deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). She has published 35 studies on these topics, including papers in national journals and international conferences, books and book chapters, most of them in Portuguese. She has also attended major international conferences regarding climate change in the last 5 years as an observer and as speaker in side events, such as the Conferences of the Parties for the climate convention from 2008 to 2011 and Rio+20.

Her current research topic at the JSD Program at Stanford addresses the relationship between forest governance and REDD+ in the Brazilian Amazon.