S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 A daughter of Lebanese immigrants to Brazil, Soraya Smaili is the first woman, first non-physician, and the youngest-ever president of the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (Unifesp). On the final year of her stint in the highest position in the university, she sits atop a bevy of achievements in research and in fighting Covid-19. She\u2019s leading testing by the University of Oxford in Brazil, and she\u2019s pushing for democracy and transparency in state-run universities. She\u2019s also the founder of the Institute of Arab Culture (ICArabe), which has promoted Arab and Muslim culture in Brazil in the last 16 years through film festivals, art shows, lectures and other activities.<\/p>\n
She has been president of the Unifesp for over seven years now, and her term is set to end in April 2021. She holds a degree in Pharmacy and master\u2019s, doctorate and postdoctorate degrees is Pharmacology. A professor at Escola Paulista de Medicina<\/em> (the S\u00e3o Paulo Medical School), she was the first-ever president-elect under 50 years of age.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking back, I can tell that we sped things up. It was a combination of several factors, lots of experience, plus our own time,\u201d she says. Smaili found herself working under a much less formal dynamic than her predecessors. She kept her ear to the ground and engaged in constant dialogue with the community.<\/p>\n Her work as president led to increased budgetary transparency and gender parity in the highest positions. Unifesp offers 54 graduate courses and 74 postgraduate, master\u2019s, and doctorate courses, plus over 100 specialization programs with more than 8,000 students between them. Overall, some 23,000 students attend the university.<\/p>\n \u201cOur plan was to have a more democratic university, to make improvements at every level, and we also included technicians from every field in the vice presidents\u2019 offices. We also brought in many women, because the administration that preceded me had just one woman in a high-ranking position. Now, we have 60% to 70% women in high positions. That was really important. Now we have women as vice presidents, as academic directors, and as technicians,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Covid-19 pandemic caused Unifesp to switch to 100% distance learning, but that\u2019s a temporary move. \u201cWe believe that actually being at the university is really important to one\u2019s education,\u201d she said. According to her, it\u2019s hard to achieve the sharing experiences that take place in class when you\u2019re in the digital realm. Smaili works for democratization and for greater student participation, with public hearings and budget transparency, including open hearings where expenditures can be questioned. \u201cIt\u2019s public money, after all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In her capacity as president, Smaili is also concerned with the quality of research and extension courses. \u201cWe work really hard to improve our teaching. We are constantly ranked among the top universities in the country. When it comes to research, depending on the parameters, we\u2019re number one, because our rate of papers published per professor is really high. It\u2019s even higher than that of the USP (University of S\u00e3o Paulo) in some cases. We made massive strides in research.\u201d<\/p>\n The university\u2019s social work was also Smaili\u2019s doing. \u201cWe have many social projects, continuing education projects, services rendered to trans people and to refugees. Our university also transformed itself to support healthcare professionals, who struggled a great deal when the pandemic struck.\u201d<\/p>\n Pandemic and research<\/strong><\/p>\n When the coronavirus pandemic hit Brazil, Smaili created a permanent committee to fight Covid-19 at the university, recreating and rearranging structures to take on the new virus. \u201cBased on studies by infectious disease specialists, we took steps to prepare ourselves. We purchased more beds and respirators, we had donation campaigns and we worked on getting funding. The entire community joined in. We rearranged the hospital (Unifesp\u2019s Hospital S\u00e3o Paulo<\/em>) to care for the population.\u201d The state-run Hospital S\u00e3o Paulo<\/em> provides free care under the Unified Health System (Sistema \u00danico de Sa\u00fade<\/em> – SUS<\/em>).<\/p>\n Unifesp issued specific calls for entry for researchers studying Covid-19. According to Smaili, these projects are looking into pharmaceuticals, inpatient treatment approaches, and testing of the Oxford Vaccine, which Unifesp is handling in Brazil. At least fifteen clinical research projects involving new drugs and ICU patients are on the verge of completion. Smaili explains that 80% of Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic, and out of the 20% of symptomatic ones, at least 10% develop a bad case of the disease.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why she believes a vaccine alone is not enough. \u201cThere needs to be antiviral and anti-inflammatory medication. Heparin was the first drug we saw that led to lower mortality rates. Then you had corticoids, which we determined that leads to less time spent in respirators for patients. We need good drugs that will help them get better,\u201d she said. The university is also conducting research into diagnosing the disease, including new swab-based testing. \u201cThe PCR test, which is done on the throat, is really unpleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n As a researcher, Smaili is deeply involved in a project that looks into estrogen as a protection against coronavirus infection, in lung and intestine cell cultures. \u201cWe are studying the ability of estrogen and other drugs to inhibit Covid-19. There is hard evidence that women are less vulnerable to the disease.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaccine<\/strong><\/p>\n Unifesp is coordinating testing of the Oxford Vaccine in Brazil. Nearly 10,000 volunteers have been getting either the vaccine or a placebo since last June. \u201cThe Oxford Vaccine testing is going well, and it has brought many benefits to Unifesp, because we have been able to cater to more people and to position the university as a reference in this field. It gave us more visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) is going to manufacture the Oxford Vaccine in Brazil in partnership with Unifesp. The announcement was made this week that vaccination will begin by early 2021. At first, vaccines made by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical conglomerate AstraZeneca will be imported. Fiocruz will start manufacturing at a later date.<\/p>\n According to Smaili, the advantage of the Oxford Vaccine is that data have been published in scientific journals; it can be stored in regular refrigerators at 4 degrees Celsius; and each bottle is enough for twenty shots. Smaili argues that Brazil is ready to distribute vaccines like Oxford\u2019s when it comes to refrigeration and multi-dose requirements.<\/p>\n She also claims that the Oxford Vaccine is the cheapest. Smaili is optimistic that there\u2019ll be enough vaccine to go around, but she expects it to be a while before full immunization comes. \u201cWill there be enough vaccine for everyone? Yes. But will everyone be immunized by May 2021? No, that\u2019s an illusion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Presidency<\/strong><\/p>\n Her path to becoming university president began when she embarked on her academic life. \u201cI have always been about science, teaching, academic work. And then I\u2019ve always been very active in student councils, in university politics, ever since I was a student.\u201d<\/p>\n Smaili has chaired professors\u2019 associations. She served as representative of the university council for seven straight terms, and she would always be the most voted professor. \u201cI really enjoy talking to people and coming up with solutions. In order for you to have quality science and teaching, you need a democratic institution where people can participate. You need transparency. That process happened over the course of a few years.\u201d<\/p>\n Arab background<\/strong><\/p>\n Soraya Soubhi Smaili was born in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil to Lebanese parents from Lebanon\u2019s Beqaa Valley. \u201cMy father came in 1951 and my mother in 1955. They married here in Brazil and they had four children \u2013 three boys and me, the youngest.\u201d Her father was a traveling salesman who later turned merchant and at one point owned a furniture shop. Her mother helped with the family business. According to Smaili, both were great tradespersons who drove a hard bargain.<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents made a point of having us go to school and graduate. They never demanded anything from us but to get a formal education, and that made a world of difference to me. It was important for me to blaze a trail for my closest cousins and other girls in the community to follow, because being from a deeply religious Muslim family, that used to be taboo a few years back. Society was more restricted in those days.\u201d<\/p>\n In pursuing the path to knowledge, Smaili took an interest in Arab culture. She had the chance to go to Lebanon a few times, and that drew her closer to the culture that birthed her.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a Brazilian first and foremost. That much has always been abundantly clear to me. But later on, after college, I became really interested in reading and studying about Arab culture and the Palestinian cause.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2004, she and her husband Francisco Miraglia established the Institute of Arab Culture (ICArabe), a go-to source on Arab and Muslim culture in Brazil. The institute\u2019s work includes seminars, studies, articles, Arab film festivals and a newsletter, among other activities.<\/p>\n In her free time, Smaili likes to read \u2013 especially biographies \u2013 and to watch movies. \u201cI like Arab cinema a lot. I know a bit about it. I like studying Arab cinema, and I also like to write about Arab culture. I derive great pleasure from writing.\u201d<\/p>\n Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n