Mentoring well-educated foreign women in Sweden

Our guest speaker, Ana Paula Nascimento, works as a project manager at Region Skåne Regional Development Department
in the Business and Labor Market Unit where she leads a project called “Kom In” (funded by the European Social Fund).
Kom In! is a mentorship program for foreign-born women with higher education from a wide range of countries including Poland, Syria, Iran, Mexico, India, Turkey, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Russian, among others.

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to a more inclusive labour market. The long-term goal is to help to increase the employment rate for foreign-born women with higher education as well as their integration into the Swedish labour market. Ana Paula has a BSc degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, a Master in City and Regional Planning from MIT and a PhD in Research Policy
from Lund University. Prior to joining the Business and Labour Market Unit, Ana Paula worked in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Division at Region Skåne leading, among other things, the Vanguard Initiative. This involves a network of 30 European regions that work toward industrial
development and innovation through research partnerships.

Ana Paula, originally from Brazil, relocated from the U.S. to Sweden in 2011 with her daughter and husband.