Thais Portilho

Thais has a 16-year career in journalism, public affairs and media relations. After a few years working at newspapers in Rio de Janeiro and the UK, Thais spent nearly a decade in in-house PR and managing political campaigns, including the Hacked Off Campaign, and Justice Across Borders – a campaign to stop the UK from opting out of EU justice and home affairs measures. Thais worked at Rethink Mental Illness and The Health Foundation, and at anti-poverty charity ActionAid as Global Head of Communications. She also recently contributed to the drafting of immigration and asylum policies for a major English political party. In 2017, Thais learned to code in Python and trained in how to develop Machine Learning and Deep Learning algorithms. She is studying for a PhD in Criminology and Computer Science at the University of Leicester.