Thais Corral is a journalist with a master in public policy by the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Her field of work for the last fourteen years has been in the non profit 'third sector'. She is the founder of three non-profit organizations, two in Brazil--REDEH (Network for Human Development) and CEMINA (Communication, Education, Information on Gender)--and one in the USA, called WEDO (Women Environment and Development Organization) which is one of the biggest international advocacy women's organizations working in the area of political advocacy. All these organizations are concerned with women's political and social empowerment, through the use of leadership training, communication tools and advocacy strategies.

Thais was one of the few women that represented civil society and gender concerned issues at the UN Global Conferences that took place in the 1990s. One of her main interests is the challenge posed by women's contributions to improve global and local governance.

Among her accomplishments is the mobilization of women during the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) through the Women's Action Agenda 21 and Planeta FEMEA, a major event organized by women worldwide at the Global NGO Forum in 1992. In the field of communications, she conceived a women's radio network that gathers 400 community radio programs all over Brazil. She also was very involved in the design of stakeholders' participation in the Brazilian Agenda 21. In the process of the World Summit for Sustainable Development, she coordinated a worldwide consultation, which resulted on a major document, the Women's Action Agenda 2015 that was launched in Johannesburg, September 2002.

In 2003, she coordinated the International Conference on Indicators on Quality of Life and Sustainable Development (ICONS) which represents a major initiative gathering a wide range of stakeholders interested in the debate in Brazil and internationally. She also was a faculty at the prestigious Salzburg Seminar on Environmental Policy and Public Dialogue. As a faculty she also teaches leadership at Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro.

She has received several awards that express the acknowledge of her leadership: the '100 Heroines Award', the 'Award Abril Mulher' for her contribution to the improvement of the status of women in Brazil. She was also recognized as 'the Woman of the Year in 2001' by Brazilian National Council of Women.. She also co-chaired the 30th Annual Conference of the Global Health Council in 2003 and is a member of the Commission on Globalisation.

She is a LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) Fellow and a member of Prince of Wales Business and Environment Program of University of Cambridge, UK Network.

She is fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian and French.