Helena Viñas Gaza

Decolonizing “Minds” Project Intern
newminds@sogh.se

Helena grew up in a small village in the mountains in the south of Catalonia. Since she was a kid she has been curious and interested in many things in life (nature, travel, politics, history, art, cooking, etc). Her curiosity led her to undertake a scientific path. She studied Biomedical Sciences in Barcelona and did the last year of the degree in Scotland. She later moved for an internship to Stockholm and stayed for her Master’s in Biomedicine at Karolinska Institute.

She is currently doing a PhD in epigenetics in single cells in the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, where she develops new techniques to study and further understand the field of epigenetics. When she is not in the lab she usually paints or does pottery and/or sports. She is always in for a good homemade meal and a nice conversation and a good movie and/or documentary.

She is now involved in the decolonizing minds project which aims at deconstructing colonial structures in the practise of global health and planetary health, starting with individual mindsets within our organisation. Helena truly believes in SOGH’s mission to improve the quality and accessibility of health care around the world through local and international partnerships and she want to make her small contribution to it.