Sonia Fleury

Biography

Full Professor at the Brazilian Public and Business Administration School, Getulio Vargas Foundation(FGV/EBAPE), where she is the Coordinator of the Public Sphere Studies Program. Her academic career began with the Psychology Department, Minas Gerais Federal University (UFMG), coordinated by Professor Célio Garcia, where she engaged in institutional analysis, research and teaching activities during the 1970s, when she was also involved in institutional analyses with Michel Foucault and Georges Lapassade (see G. Lapassade. Les chevaux du diable. Une derive transversaliste. Universitaires, Paris. 1974). During the late 1970s, she worked at the Studies and Projects Financing Agency (FINEP), involved particularly with the implementation of the Research Support Program that established the Collective Health field, while also serving as a PESES/FINEP/FIOCRUZ researcher under Sergio Arouca, analysing the Social Security and Welfare Complex. An active participant in the struggle to bring democracy back to Brazil, she played leading roles at major healthcare institutions, including the Brazilian Healthcare Studies Center (CEBES) and the Brazilian Collective Health Graduate Studies Association (ABRASCO), where the Public Health Reform Project was planned and presented, that resulted in the introduction of Brazil’s Unified National Health System (SUS). With the return of democracy, she served as a consultant to the Ministry of Social Security headed up by Dr. Waldir Pires, where a proposal for a feasible and inclusionary Social Security System was drawn up. Her political participation and civil society organizations also included a seat on the Advisory Board of the Brazilian Economic and Social Analysis Institute (IBASE) under Herbert Betinho José de Souza, and serving as president of the Brazilian Healthcare Studies Center (CEBES) from 2006 to 2009. Backed by ample experience and determined militance as a specialist in this field, she was well qualified to serve as a consultant on the Social Security Chapter of Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, drafted by the Constituent Assembly with Senator Almir Gabriel as its rapporteur. She was actively involved in drafting the preparatory document and also as an exhibitor at the VIII National Health Conference. She established the Political and Social Studies Center (NUPES) at the National Public Health School, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), focused on comparative studies of Public Health Reform in Brazil. As the FIOCRUZ President, she assisted Vice President Mario Hamilton with the development of the methodology and the implementation of its first In-House Congress, which was an original experience of participating in institutional planning. She retired as a full Fellow in 1995. Her efforts to build up a democratic society with universally applied social laws in Brazil was acknowledged through the award of the Oswaldo Cruz Gold Medal by the Ministry of Health 2009, and a Profile Written by Kelly Morris for The Lancet in the UK: Volume 377, Issue 9779 (http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)60720-4/fulltext#). With the election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, she was appointed to the Economic and Social Development Council (CDES) (2003–2006. She was also a member of the National Council on the Social Determinants of Health(CNDSS). In the USA, she was a faculty fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies (1990–1991) at Notre Dame University. In Washington, DC, she was a Senior Social Development Specialist Lecturer with the  Inter-American Institute for Economic and Social Development  (INDES) at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), lecturing on Social Policies to Latin American administrators (1997–2002). A Visiting Professor at several Universities in Latin America and Europe, she also sits on editorial and academic boards in several countries. On several occasions, she has served as a consultant to government entities and ministries, as well as non-governmental organizations in Brazil, and in other countries major international organizations, including: the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO), among others. What has been published in several languages and countries, with 134 papers published in scientific journals, 70 book chapters, 12 books and 14 collections by 2014. She has recently become involved with videos and documentaries providing educational support and recording innovative experiments (http://peep.ebape.fgv.br).

Research Interest

Theory of Democracy, Deliberative Democracy Theory of Citizenship and Construction of Political Subject Welfare State and Compared Reforms of Social Safety Net Systems Healthcare, Social Security and Welfare Policies Decentralised Management and State Reform Policy Networks and Social Innovation.