Senior Fellow for the Study of Effective Drug Demand Reduction Policy

Recognized throughout South America, in Europe and North America as a leader in the battle against drug addiction and associated social problems, Professor Carakushansky is President of Brazilian Humanitarians in Action (BRAHA) and has been for the last ten years the International Coordinator of Forging Leadership in Latin America for Drug Demand Reduction, a Program of the Drug Prevention Network of the Americas and Drug Free America Foundation. She has coordinated more than sixty seminars in almost all major cities of Latin America. She has developed numerous drug prevention programs and has authored books, texts and articles about Community Policing, Drug Prevention, Legalization, and Preventive Cities.

She is a Board Member of Drug Watch International (www.dwi.org) and a Board Member of the World Federation Against Drugs (www.wfad.se). She is also a Member and a Special Advisor of the International Task Force on Strategic Drug Policy and a Member of the Commission for the Prevention of Drugs of the Brazilian Lawyers Institute – Instituto dos Advogados Brasileiros IAB – as well as a Member of the Commission on Drug Policies of the Brazilian Bar Association – OAB.

Professor Carakushansky was the first Head of the Drug Prevention Bureau of the City of Rio de Janeiro, and is the former Head of Rio de Janeiro’s Special Secretariat for the Prevention of Chemical Dependence (Municipal Drug Czar). Because of the original and comprehensive work implemented at Rio’s Municipality regarding drug prevention, she won recognition at the Stockholm Bangeman Challenge in Sweden, and the First Excellency Award in Drug Prevention given by DPNA – Drug Prevention Network of the Americas.

For her leadership and innovative work she has received numerous awards; among them, Rio de Janeiro highest Military Police and Municipal Guard Awards. Brazilian but born in Rumania, she was awarded in 2002 the coveted Honorary Citizenship of the State of Rio de Janeiro given by the State Congress. In 2008 she received the highest public recognition given by Rio’s City Council, the Pedro Ernesto Medal. Because of her work in Latin American countries, she has been declared Distinguished Guest of several Latin American cities. She speaks seven languages and has planned and coordinated a great number of seminars and conferences for various national and international law enforcement agencies and prevention organizations.

A graduate of the High Strategic Studies Course of the Brazilian War College, Professor Carakushansky holds post-graduate degrees in Mathematics and in Management. She began her career in Mathematics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro where she attained the first place in the exams for Assistant Professor. She retired as an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro after teaching there for twenty five years in the undergraduate and Graduate programs.

Mina Seinfeld de Carakushansky was born in Dorohoi-Romania on Sept 14, 1944, after her parents, survivors of two different Concentration Camps, reunited. She is a Brazilian citizen, married to a Brazilian and has two adult children.