Civic Innovator: Alessandra Orofino

Alessandra Orofino’s globetrotting career as a student and human rights advocate has always flirted with political activism. The 25-year-old Rio de Janeiro native has lived in Montreal, Paris, New Delhi, and New York. But when she returned to Rio in 2008 to work as a field researcher on gender-based violence, she realized that the most exciting prospects for political change were in her home city—anticipating by several years the citizen-led protests that would later sweep Brazil.

Today, Orofino and her friend Miguel Lago, 26, are at the forefront of a growing effort to increase...

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