Catarina Leitão
Catarina Leitão is a doctor in Social Psychology, and she has a master’s degree in Educational Psychology. She worked as a researcher in the project Playgroups for Inclusion (Grupos Aprender, Brincar, Crescer), in Portugal, in the scope of the quality of early childhood education and care services.
Clara Barata
Dr. Clara Barata was a researcher and invited professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education at the University of Coimbra when ISOTIS started. She holds a master’s and doctoral degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a licenciatura in Clinical Child Psychology from the University of Lisbon. Recently, Clara coordinated the experimental evaluation of a Playgroups intervention for Roma and hard-to-reach families of children 0 to 4 in Portugal and was also a member of the CARE consortium, a 11-country collaborative project funded by the European Commission to address issues related to the quality, inclusiveness, and individual, social, and economic benefits of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Europe. Previously, she was a Marie Curie Fellow looking at the developmental paths of Portuguese preschoolers at risk, and their family and classroom characteristics. Prior to this project, she designed and implemented a large-scale evaluation of a national policy for the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science; and before that she was the research project coordinator for Un Buen Comienzo, a large randomized trial evaluation of a preschool professional development program in Santiago, Chile.
In this consortium, she is generally responsible for the tasks of dissemination and communication of foreground. However, from May 2017 to May 2018 she will be on leave from the project ISOTIS to pursue other professional activities. Dr. Catarina Leitão will be in charge of all tasks of dissemination and communication of foreground on behalf of the University of Coimbra.
Joana Guerra
Dr. Joana Guerra is Social Policy professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Coimbra. Her research interest focuses on the effectiveness of jnter-agency working and mechanisms of integrated governance in Portuguese municipalities. She has been developing research projects in association with the local governments to assess territorial social networks about their strategies to recognize and take action on the most serious situations of poverty and social exclusion. Currently she is a researcher in the Local Development Social Contract (CLDS, 3G, Sertã) created by the Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity in which she cooperates to realize the Social Diagnosis of Sertã county. Guerra completed a PhD thesis on the relation between Portuguese welfare state and the professionalism of social workers. Further, she is the daily supervisor of master and grad students who study inclusive social policies at Coimbra's schools. In 2014, she took part in the dissemination action plan of the EU-funded project Reviewing Social Auditing Practices to Combat Exploitative Brokering in Southern Europe (ReSAurSE).
Maria Filomena Gaspar
Maria Filomena Ribeiro da Fonseca Gaspar is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She was trained as Psychologist (1986) and she has a master (1991) and a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology (March 1999: PhD in Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Coimbra/University of Oxford, UK).
Experience in national and international funded research projects in the promotion of mental wealth and reduction of social inequalities with evidence based interventions in early years with schools and families. Coordinator (IR) of the research project funded by FCT and entitled “Prevention / early intervention behavioral disorders : effectiveness of parental and school programs ” (2010-2013 ); member of the research team of the project “Incredible Years for the Promotion of mental Health”, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Coimbra, funded by the Programme for Public Health Initiatives (EEA Grants – PT06), which aims to help reduce economic and social inequalities in certain priority health areas and establish bilateral relations between donor and beneficiary countries (ends December 2016). Consultant since May 2013 of the RAND EUROPE COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY for providing research and consulting services under the project “European Platform For Investing in Children”. Large experience in the supervision of master and doctoral dissertations in Portugal and abroad.
Sofia Guichard
Sofia Guichard has a master’s degree in Psychology, in the field of development and education. She has contributed to several projects in the fields of early childhood education and inclusive education. Since 2018, she has been working as a research assistant within the ISOTIS project, first with the Portuguese team at ISCTE-IUL (WP2) and then at the University of Porto (WP3, WP4, WP5). Her research interests are early childhood education, inclusive education, education for social justice and intercultural education. She is now part of the ISOTIS team at the University of Coimbra focused on national and international dissemination (WP7).
Rita Pratas
Rita Pratas finish her licentiate degree degree in Social Work in Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education at the University of Coimbra. Currently, she’s doing a master on Social Work at the Faculty mentioned above.
She did her training in the area of promotion and protetion system of children and youngsters in danger, for approximately one year.
At the moment, she works with CEIS20 team in the development of Social Diagnosis and Social Development Plans of different municipalities.
She’s part of the work group of Social Work that gather Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education at the University of Coimbra and also the Hospital Center of University of Coimbra, colaborating in the refletion upon social hospitalizations.
Her areas of interest are related to the intervention with children, youngsters and families in danger and the intervention of local governments with people in vulnerable situations.
Since 2013, she’s volunteer in the Forest Home for children and young people in danger (Girassol).