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The team
Marina Naomi Smolyanov
Strategic Partnerships & International Relations
Marina brings over 20 years of international experience in government relations, regulation, strategic partnerships, and advancing innovation between Israel, the U.S., and Europe, including her leadership in innovation at Clalit Health Services. Her unique strength lies in building and maintaining trusted relationships with Jewish community leaders, philanthropists, influential decision-makers, and opinion leaders worldwide. At Naza: The Real Story, she leverages her global network to drive strategic partnerships and global outreach.
Watch the filmA promise made at seven
Marina Naomi Smolyanov came to Israel from Ukraine at the age of seven and grew up in Ramat Gan. "As a girl I vowed to repay the country for what I received as an immigrant at seven," she has said. At fourteen she became a youth ambassador for Israel with the Jewish Agency, the start of a life spent explaining Israel to the world. "Israel is the home of my soul."
Speaking for Israel abroad
As a young woman she spent about two years in Washington, D.C., attached to Israel's embassy as an outside emissary and speaking on American campuses, with the support of the philanthropist Joey Low. At 27 she took up a two-year state posting in Madrid. Her public diplomacy work has taken her to the United States, Spain, Ukraine and Guatemala; in 2014 she wrote in The Jerusalem Post about Israel's close friendship with Guatemala, and in 2016 she was part of Israel's women's delegation to the Women's Economic Forum in New Delhi.
Policy and the Knesset
At home she directed public diplomacy at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and served in the Knesset as spokesperson and senior political adviser to Member of Knesset Dr. Akram Hasson.
Innovation in health care
Today she is a regional innovation manager at Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest health organization, in the Haifa and Western Galilee district. She is also a PhD candidate in Science, Technology and Society at Bar-Ilan University, researching how COVID-19 and the recent war reshaped regulation and innovation in Israel's health system, and she speaks at health-technology conferences such as the HealthTech AI Summit in Tel Aviv and HealthIL Week.
Teaching people to be heard
Alongside her career she teaches public speaking. She founded a public speaking club in Tel Aviv, lectures at Reichman University to students from some 40 countries, and has trained teams in government ministries and at Israel Aerospace Industries. She holds a BA in communication and psychology and an MA in public policy from Tel Aviv University.
At Naza: The Real Story
On the film's team she leads strategic partnerships and international relations, using her network of community leaders, philanthropists and decision-makers around the world to bring the film to new audiences.
