Maria das Neves Imaculada Pereira earned her MD from the Faculty of Medicine, Agostinho Neto University (Angola) in 2001 and specialised in Intensive Care Medicine at the Hospital das Clínicas, University of São Paulo (Brazil) in 2009. An intensivist at Clínica Multiperfil (Luanda), she served as Chief of Adult Intensive Care (2009 – 2019) and Chief of Paediatric Intensive Care (2012 – 2019). From 2019 to 2022, she was Executive Administrator and Director of Diagnosis & Therapy, and since 2022, she has sat on the Board of Directors while continuing to lead Diagnosis & Therapy.

Maria is now pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Sciences at CESPU (Gandra-Porto, Portugal), with research conducted at the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, under the supervision of Dr Maria Isabel Veiga. Her doctoral project, “Mapping the Scenario of Antimalarial Resistance in Angola,” investigates resistance patterns in Plasmodium falciparum to inform national malaria-control strategies.