Leonardo is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap) and will be a Visiting Fellow at the Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC) in 2022.

He graduated in International Relations at the University of São Paulo (USP) and holds a master degree in Sociology also at the University of São Paulo. Leonardo holds a PhD in Sociology from the Institute of Social and Political Studies at Rio de Janeiro State University (IESP/UERJ). He was a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin (CAPES) in 2017. He received an honorable mention at the CAPES Thesis Award 2019 for his doctoral dissertation "The right to the periphery: experience of social mobility and struggle for citizenship among peripheral workers".

Leonardo has worked as advisor and consultant on public policy, especially in the areas of public health, education, science and technology, and government affairs.

He has research and teaching experience in the areas of Urban Sociology, Political Sociology and Economic Sociology, mainly in the following topics: ethnography, right to the city, social mobility, urban violence and social entrepreneurship.