Dr. Vera Cordeiro, MD and general practitioner, graduated in 1975 from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. For 20 years, she worked at the Hospital da Lagoa, in Rio de Janeiro, founding in 1979 the first Psychosomatic department in a public hospital in Brazil.

In 1991, she founded the Dara Institute, a civil society institution that works to promote health and human development to fight poverty among the most miserable families in Brazil and other countries. Over the course of over three decades, Vera has enabled the creation of 23 similar organizations near public hospitals in 6 states in Brazil and has inspired other social entrepreneurs who have spread the methodology in many countries all over the world. The methodology became public policy in Belo Horizonte, state of Mina Gerais in 2009 and in Itú in 2023, state of Sao Paulo.

Dr. Vera is an Ashoka fellow, an Avina leader, a Skoll Foundation awardee, Schwab Foundation social entrepreneur. She is also a member of the Ashoka World Council and an honorary member of the Rio de Janeiro Academy of Medicine. Former member of the board of PATH: Catalyst for Global Health from 2005 to 2011.