Our team
Brazil
Deisy Ventura
Professor Deisy Ventura is the coordinator of the SMAPL in Brazil. She is a Full Professor of Ethics at the School of Public Health (FSP) of the University of São Paulo (USP), where she is also Vice-Coordinator of the Graduate Program (PPG) in Global Health and Sustainability. She serves as Vice-Director of the USP’s Institute of International Relations, where she has been teaching in the PPG in International Relations since 2009. Dr. Ventura holds a PhD in International Law and a Master’s degree in European Law from the University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne. She was one of the first Brazilian jurists to specialize in the study of pandemics, having written her Livre-Docência thesis in International Law (USP, 2012) on the global response to the H1N1 influenza virus. Professor Ventura served as President of the Brazilian Association of International Relations (ABRI) from 2019 to July 2021. She is a level 1A PQ research fellow of the CNPq and was a consultant to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) from 2019 to 2021 on pandemic-related issues.
Adriana Salay
Adriana is a historian with a PhD in Social History from USP, having completed a research internship at the University of California Riverside. She also holds a Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree in History from the same institution. Dr. Salay was a visiting professor at Unicamp, in the Faculty of Food Engineering. Currently, she leads the “Quebrada Alimentada” project, which promotes direct food assistance. She is co-author of the book “Fome e Assistência Alimentar na Pandemia” (Hunger and Food Assistance in the Pandemic) published in 2022.
Catarina Mançano
Catarina Almeida Mançano Fernandes studies the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Paraisópolis complex, focusing on the activities of the Paraisópolis Multi-Entity Forum during 2020 and 2021. Her research is part of a scientific initiation project funded by FAPESP. She is currently a 6th semester student in the Bachelor of Public Health program at the University of São Paulo (FSP-USP).
Cristiane Pereira
Cristiane Pereira is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the University of São Paulo, where she also completed her master’s degree. Her main research interests are racial and gender inequalities in health emergencies, international diffusion of public policies, and international cooperation within the Health Economic-Industrial Complex. She is a researcher at the Center for Research in Health Law at the University of São Paulo (CEPEDISA) and has participated in several consulting projects for the non-profit sector.
Fernando Aith
Fernando is a Full Professor in the Department of Policy, Management and Health at the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo (FSP/USP). He is the Director General of the Center for Research in Health Law at USP and a Visiting Professor at both Université Paris Cité and the University of Ottawa. He serves as an Expert Member of the United Nations (UN) Harmony with Nature Platform. Dr. Aith holds a Livre-Docência degree in General Theory of State from the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo (FADUSP), a post-doctorate in Public Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris 2, and a PhD in Public Health from the School of Public Health of USP (FSP/USP). He also holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and General Theory of Law from FADUSP, a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Medical and Health Law from the University of Paris 8, and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of USP (FADUSP).
Kamilla baes
Kamilla Baes is a photographer and videomaker. She is currently part of the communication team for the project “Communication challenges in health in peripheral responses to covid-19: the case of Jardim Colombo, São Paulo, SP”. She works on capturing and editing audiovisual material for social institutions in the peripheries of São Paulo and public events in the city. Kamilla has been part of the Aluga Quebrada team since 2022, a peripheral audiovisual rental company. In 2021, she was part of the communication team at the Espaço Público do Aprender Social (Espaso), within the Municipal Secretariat of Social Assistance and Social Development (SMADS) in São Paulo, a place that trains and improves social assistance services. In 2020, she graduated from the Technical Course in Community Guidance at Etec Cepam, where she studied topics related to public policies. She holds a degree in Audiovisual Production Technology from FIAM-FAAM FMU (2018); took a Camera course at the Criar Institute of TV, Cinema and New Media (2016); and earned a degree in Visual Communication Technician from Etec de Tiquatira (2015).
Luiza Witzel Farias
Luiza Witzel Farias is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Her thesis topic is philanthrocapitalism and community responses to health emergencies in the Global South. She is a member of the Center for Research and Practices in International Law (NPPDI-UFSM) and the Center for Studies and Research in Health Law (CEPEDISA-USP). Luiza holds a Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) and was a fellow of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES/Brazil). She is currently a fellow of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP/São Paulo). She has studied topics related to international health cooperation in Latin America and decoloniality. She is also interested in South-South cooperation, decolonizing global health, Third Worldist approaches to international law, and qualitative methods applied to International Relations studies.
Pamella Liz
Pamella Liz is a Social Scientist and Sanitarian, currently conducting postdoctoral research at the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo (FSP-USP) with a FAPESP scholarship. She is working on the international project “Social mobilization as policymaking lever? A Trans-Atlantic Covid-19 dialogue on community action and decentralized governance”, conducted simultaneously in Brazil, Canada, Germany and Peru. Her research analyzes media and scientific representations, and the life stories of people and groups in situations of precariousness and vulnerability, from the perspective of gender, race, class, and collective health studies. In 2020, she was a research assistant at the Global Urban Studies Program during her doctoral internship at Rutgers University (NJ-USA). In 2021, she was a post-doctoral fellow in the Epidemic Ethics group (Oxford University), led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Paulo Trivellato
Paulo is a PhD student in Global Health and Sustainability at the University of São Paulo, researching global health decolonization movements. Born and raised in the northern zone of São Paulo, he studied International Relations and is interested in the relationship between science and politics, from the everyday to the geopolitical. He will be undertaking a research internship at the University of Toronto starting in September 2024.
Rossana Rocha Reis
Rossana Rocha Reis holds a PhD in Political Science from USP and is a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the same university. She is one of the authors of the research project “Mapping and analysis of legal norms in response to Covid-19 in Brazil” from CEDEPISA USP and a member of the SMAPL team.
Vitória Vieira
Vitória Vieira is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations at FMU and holds a Technician degree in Administration from ETEC Guaracy Silveira. She studied Foreign Policy Analysis, International Marketing, and International Project Management at ESRI – Escola Superior de Relações Internacionais. Currently, she is part of the project “Management and memory of a transatlantic research project: social mobilization as a policymaking lever (SMAPL)”. Vitória volunteers with social media and projects at the Cursinho Popular de Paraisópolis and has worked on sociocultural projects within the Paraisópolis community. A resident of the Paraisópolis Complex and the Viela da Paz community – Morro Verde, she collaborated with organizations during the Covid-19 pandemic to distribute food and hygiene products.