Dr. Fernanda Abra completed her Ph.D. in road ecology in 2019 and earned her Master’s degree in 2012 from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has a post-doctoral fellowship with the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP). 

Dr. Abra is one of only a handful of road ecologists working in Brazil—a place where the ecological threat of roads is deeper than almost anywhere on the planet. Seeking to address threats to wildlife at an early age, she founded ViaFAUNA, a consulting organization that has worked to mitigate impacts on wildlife of over 35 road and railway projects in Brazil. Dr. Abra has also published over a dozen peer-reviewed papers on roads and the threats they present. In 2019, Dr. Abra was recognized for her work with the Future for Nature Award, and she was a finalist for Brazilian Claudia magazine’s Woman of the Year Award. 

Dr. Abra is conducting a a broadscale test of artificial canopy bridge designs for mitigating the fragmentation impacts of roads in the Amazon basin, with the aim of determining which design is preferred by primates and other arboreal mammals.