Sofia Ravara is consultant of Pulmonology and Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University Hospital / University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal; and associate researcher at National School of Public Health, NOVA University, Lisbon, Portugal. Her research interests are prevention and control of respiratory diseases. Her work as a respiratory physician in major hospitals gave her the understanding on how tobacco harms population health. She holds a Master’s Degree in Tobacco Control (Cantabria University, Spain), and has been working in hospital-based smoking-cessation clinics, workplace cessation programs, hospital smoke-free network and health professionals training. As a consequence, she was naturally grounded in health policy and advocacy and ended to work passionately on these fields. Dr Ravara collaborates with several medical scientific societies and tobacco control ONGs and networks across Europe. To date, she has co-authored over 55 peer-review papers and 20 book chapters, supervised 30 Master Dissertations and collaborated in 3 PhD thesis; and participated in research projects submission to the Portuguese Government, the European Commission and the Pharmaceutical Industry. Dr Ravara has been an ERS officer and a member of the ERS Tobacco Control Committee (2012-20) and has collaborated with WHO in supporting countries to strengthen health systems in tobacco dependence treatment and gender policies. She is a member of the National Committee on Health Literacy, Portuguese Directorate of Health; board member of the International Network of Women Against Tobacco (INWAT) Europe; and editorial member of Tobacco Prevention & Cessation, Journal of Substance Use, and Preventión del Tabaquismo
