Ms. Monica Ferro currently serves as the Chief of the Geneva Office. Mónica has had a twenty-year career of public service in Portugal, during which she served as the Secretary of State for National Defense as well as stints as a university lecturer, a media personality and an activist. Monica served as a Member of Parliament, and was Vice-President of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democrat Party; the Chair of the All Party Parliamentarian Group on Population and Development; and Vice-President of the European Forum of Parliamentarians for Population and Development. As a parliamentarian, she sat as a member of the National Defense Commission, the Equality Subcommittee, the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities among others.

Mónica, who holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in International Relations from the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UL), and is also a PhD candidate with a thesis on “Security Sector Reform in Fragile States”. A National Defense and Civil Crisis Management Auditor, Mónica has also been a guest lecturer at the National Defense Institute, Air Force Academy and University of Military Studies. She is also an Associate Researcher at the Centre for Gender Studies, University of Lisbon.