Vilma Reis

In the early 1990s, Reis joined the Collective of Black Women of Bahia and has since remained close to black movement organizations, such as the Union of Blacks for Equality (UNEGRO) and the National Coordination of Black Entities (CONEN). She acted as coordinator of the Salvador Women's Forum between 1996 and 1999, and was a member of the organizing committee of the 12th National Feminist Meeting, held in Salvador in 1997. She was selected to participate in the Afro-Brazilian Community Development Women's Training Project program, held in 1998 in Washington, D.C. She was involved with the preparation of the National Policy Plan for Women by the federal Secretariat of Policies for Women, between 2009 and 2011. In 2020 she contributed to the founding of Coletivo Mahin – Organization of Black Women, which calls itself an anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, popular and left-wing movement.^[1][7][8]

Reis was involved with the Public Defender's Office of the state of Bahia from its creation in 2009. She initially participated in the legal assistance advisory board. In 2015, she was elected general ombudsman of the body, a position she held until 2019. She has contributed to the "popular-defenders" course of the Public Defender's Office, which updates women on topics such as rights of women and human rights. She also served as president of the National Council of Ombudsmen for Public Defenders.^[1][7][8]

In December 2019, she was one of three candidates seeking the nomination of the Workers' Party to be the party's candidate for the 2020 election for mayor of Salvador. However, the candidate chosen by the party was Denice Santiago, who went on to lose the election to Bruno Soares Reis, candidate of the Brazil Union party (União). In 2022, in the general elections, she ran for election as a Federal Deputy and was again unsuccessful.^[1][3]