The postdoctoral researcher at the International Center for Health Equity (ICEH/UFPel) will receive a prize from the Bunge Foundation in the Youth category for her relevant thesis. Recognized as one of the most important recognitions of scientific, literary, and artistic merits in the country, the award is on the theme "Knowledge and strategies against hunger", regarding her doctoral thesis entitled “Gender Inequality in Food Insecurity and food consumption in Brazilian households”.

The scientist holds a Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) with an exchange period at Yale School of Public Health. In her work, Lissandra shows how gender inequality, along with its intersections with race/skin color and marital status, influences the vulnerability of female-headed households to food insecurity and hunger in Brazil over a 14-year period based on representative national data. The discussion talks about how gender norms and structural racism contribute to a higher prevalence of food insecurity in households headed by black or mixed-race women, especially in those households with children under 5 years old and in the wealthier regions of Brazil - the South, and the Southeast regions, influencing their feeding habits.

Two articles have already been published based on her work: Gender and skin color/race intersections in food insecurity across Brazilian households published at ‘Cadernos de Saúde Pública’, and “Gender, racial and household composition explain inequities in household food insecurity in Brazil” (in press) at PLOS Global Public Health journal.