Synergos Staff
Daniel Becker
Daniel Becker is Director, Brazil, of The Synergos Institute, overseeing efforts to strengthen philanthropy and build partnerships to overcome poverty and increase equity in Brazil. He is based in Synergos' Rio de Janeiro office.
Before joining Synergos in June 2007, Dr. Becker was Executive Director of CEDAPS (Centro de Promoção da Saúde -- Center for Health Promotion), a nonprofit organization he founded in 1993 to work with residents of poor urban communities in Brazil on the issues of health, development and education. CEDAPS uses participatory methods that build the capacity and create networks of youth, women, community leaders, health professionals and educators. These actors, in turn, work through partnerships with businesses, government agencies, and community and nonprofit groups to improve the lives of more than 500,000 people in 120 poor urban communities.
CEDAPS also works more broadly with government agencies, international organizations, foundations and universities in efforts that have created a Network of Healthy Communities, consisting of 106 groups and local initiatives that benefit approximately 1.4 million people.
Dr. Becker also participated in the creation of the main primary care program of Brazil's Ministry of Health, which covers 85 million people. He now serves as a consultant for the program.
Prior to founding CEDAPS, Dr. Becker worked as a pediatrician with Médecins Sans Frontiéres in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border. Dr. Becker has been an Ashoka Fellow. His medical degree is from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and he earned a masters of public health from Brazil's National School of Public Health. His writing has been published in Brazil and internationally and includes the book O Que É Adolescência? (What Is Adolescence?), which has sold more than 80,000 copies.
