Clara is Associate Vice President within the Edelman Global Advisory’s Brussels Health and Wellbeing team, where she supports clients to shape public affairs strategies and establish multi-stakeholder coalitions.
Prior to joining Edelman, Clara spent five years within the European and International Advocacy team of EURORDIS, the European Organisation for Rare Diseases, where she was responsible for developing and coordinating public affairs activities on policy issues of relevance to people living with a rare disease in Europe and worldwide. In parallel, Clara was also Public Affairs lead within Rare Diseases International, the global alliance of rare disease patient organisations, and policy coordinator of the NGO Committee for Rare Diseases, a platform for NGOs in consultative status with the United Nations and an interest in rare diseases. In this role, she focused on raising awareness of rare diseases within the global sustainable development, human rights and health agendas. She maintained institutional relations with the UN, its Member States, and its agencies, and was instrumental in the development of campaigns that led to the inclusion of rare diseases in the 2019 UN Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage, and the adoption of the 2021 UN General Assembly Resolution on addressing the challenges of persons living with a rare disease and their families.
Prior to her engagement within the rare disease community, Clara worked in the sustainable development sector, as a research assistant at the World Bank in Washington D.C. and a campaign coordinator within a small-scale Belgian NGO. Clara holds a Master of Science in Global Politics from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Bachelor of Arts in Human Geography from the University of Cambridge in the UK. A Spanish native, Clara is also fluent in English and French and speaks a basic level of Italian.