Coimbra has been with Burness for more than 25 years, focusing specifically on the firm’s work in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. Now traveling between homes in Lisbon and Baltimore, Coimbra continues to support our clients, whether organizing media visits in collaboration with Indigenous and Afrodescendant and local communities, or creating science-based narratives for press events in major cities worldwide. She is in regular direct contact with bellwether foreign and national journalists. 

Coimbra is a key strategist on our long-term grant with the Ford Foundation to advance the quest for a just energy transition and elevate the visibility of land rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities as a conservation solution. Guided by the strategic goals of Indigenous and Afrodescendant leaders and their organizations, Coimbra works with her colleagues on an unbranded approach to communications, seeking opportunities to connect the stories of communities to the growing body of compelling research that supports their role in protecting ancestral territories that are home to some of the world’s most intact and biodiverse ecosystems.

As a research communicator, Coimbra has arranged and staffed international press events on every continent but Antarctica. Coimbra speaks four languages (English, Spanish, French and Portuguese) and is conversant in Italian and Portuguese Creole. 

A former journalist, Coimbra once covered crime, politics and HIV. She served as a science writer and communications officer at the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Coimbra graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in languages and linguistics.