Raquel Helen Silva was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. From her teenage years on, she gained frequent recognition for her efforts to create opportunities for underrepresented populations, including women and girls, youth and black people. She has been selected to represent Brazil at several leading global development events, and has been recognized for promoting social transformation by the White House, the World Economic Forum, and others.

As a Youth Ambassador, Raquel was chosen to introduce Michelle Obama during the former First Lady’s 2011 visit to Brazil, with a speech about how educational opportunities exposed her to people from different backgrounds and sparkled a desire to advocate for social justice. Mrs. Obama subsequently stated that Raquel was an example for her own daughters. In her TEDx talk at the age of 21, Raquel used the metaphor of a butterfly to teach on the power of transformation and connection. She truly believes that we should believe the people – the most advanced “technology” available- and that people should use their talents for the greater good.

Raquel is an alumna of the Global Changemakers Global Youth Summit, the G20 Summit, Global Change Leaders and she has worked with the Development Fund for African Women, Thomson Reuters, and Yale University. Raquel holds a BA in International Relations with a focus on International Political Economy from Mount Holyoke College, a BA in Government from the Federal University of Minas Gerais and a Masters in Global Affairs from the Jackson Institute at Yale University. She is fluent in Portuguese and English, and has an intermediate knowledge of French and Spanish.