Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program Staff

Lori Spears relocated to Pittsburgh in 2004 to continue her career in fundraising with Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to her current position with ICTI, Spears was a major gift officer in Individual Giving with Carnegie Mellon’s University Advancement. As a ten-year fundraising veteran, she also served as the assistant vice president for Major and Planned Gifts, and as director of Planned Giving at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. While managing the fundraising unit at Claflin, the university was engaged in a $20 million capital campaign, the largest in the institution’s history. The university exceeded the initial goal by $10 million.

Spears holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, a Master of Arts in Institutional Media Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in English from North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC.

Sara Brandão
Executive Director, ICTI@Portugal
Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto
INESC Porto
Rua Dr. Roberto Frias,
4200-465 Porto
Portugal
Tel: (+351) 222 094 067
sbrandao@cmuportugal.org

Before joining Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, Sara Brandão worked at University of Cambridge, UK. During those four years she was the business manager of the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies at the University of Cambridge. CARET operates a complex mix of internally funded services, research council and HEFCE funded research projects, internal and external trading projects. Sara was responsible for developing, implementing and supporting a detailed project management and management accounting reporting system to track over 100 projects a year. Between 1997 and 2007 she worked at Grupo Crumar, a small Portuguese industry that has as core business the conception, design and commercialization of bathroom and kitchen taps and fittings. During this time Sara Brandão worked alongside with the board members. She assumed several roles over the years at Crumar, such as Management Controller, Export Director, Investment Projects’ coordinator, IT’s department coordinator and Business consultant.

Sara Brandão holds a higher degree in Business Administration, by Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto and an Executive Master in Audit and Management Control by Católica Porto Business School.

Before joining Carnegie Mellon Portugal as the Communications Officer for ICTI@Portugal, Alexandra Carvalho Vieira was a journalist for ten years. She worked for two magazines, distributed in Portuguese newspapers, and was then promoted to Editor for two years. In early 2008 she was invited to be the Editor of “Perspectiva” Magazine a monthly publication that reports on Portuguese education, health, regions, environment, companies, and tourism. Her work there involved conducting interviews, writing reports and articles, and coordinating a team of reporters. She was also responsible for the general art of the magazine.

Carvalho Vieira holds an Executive Master in Marketing by the Universidade Católica Portuguesa School of Management (www.ege.pt ). She earned her higher degree in Communication Sciences and Journalism in 1998 from the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (www.ual.pt). She also has some training in Multimedia Production and Photography. In her free time she enjoys playing with her sons, swimming, reading, and traveling.

Benjamin Walfish
Senior Administrative Coordinator, ICTI@CMU
Carnegie Mellon University
Hamburg Hall Room 2210
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-5344
bwalfish@andrew.cmu.edu

Benjamin Walfish, Senior Administrative Coordinator, has been with the Information and Communication Technologies Institute since October 2010. Before joining ICTI, Ben worked as a Facilities Assistant with Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. He has also worked in a Production Planning Co-op with Johnson & Johnson as well as participated in an initiative to reduce obesity in Allegheny County. He received his B.S. in Policy and Management (’10) from CMU, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity.