When Professor of Management Samuel de Paiva Naves Mamede was a child, his mother told him God has a purpose for his life.
“My parents, they were responsible to prepare my call,” Mamede said. “My mom said, ‘Samuel, don't forget God has a specific calling for you. And your dad and me – we are responsible to help you, to give you the correct paths or ways that we need to follow Jesus.”
He found his gifting in teaching. His journey started as a Sunday school assistant in classes, and he went on to teach at a Christian university in Brazil.
He did his bachelor’s in business administration, and his two master’s degrees in statistics and the other accounting. He also completed two doctorates: one in business administration and the other in management.
While he was working on his doctorates, he was invited to do research in Portugal. In 2019, he finished his thesis, and in December of 2019, he presented his dissertation. He received his doctorates from the University of Minho in Portugal and also from Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Brazil.
Just when he was going to the USA to present his research, the COVID-19 epidemic hit, and Mamede could not leave Brazil.
But God provided a way.
Mamede started presenting his research over webinars to professors at different universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Illinois State, University of California, Dublin City University Business School and Michigan State University.
He also connected with the CEO of the OACD, an organization that fights corruption and promotes integrity (Anti-corruption and integrity | OECD).
You can find more of the people and colleges he connected with on his LinkedIn page: (18) Samuel Mamede | LinkedIn.
God used the lock-down to spread Mamede’s research perhaps further than it would have originally gone.
Mamede’s research covered the relationship between the number of Christians in a city and the level of corruption in the city.
He compared the problem of corruption to spilled milk. Once the milk is spilled onto a flat surface, it is almost impossible to spoon it back into the bottle. He hopes that his research will prevent the milk from being spilled in the first place.
Since 2011, he had questions on his heart, so he started researching on how to prevent corruption.
“I had some questions in my mind, in my heart, that burn every single day,” Mamede said. “Can we truly fight 20th century corruption with 20th century methods?”
He asked himself whether it was right to let corruption remain invisible. If he was called to be a light to the world, how could he shine in places darkened by corruption? He wanted to use his God-given gifts of knowledge, technology and influence to defend truth and justice.
Using Artificial Intelligence, he was able to track data showing the relationship between Christians and corruption in Brazilian cities. He found that the more Christians there were in a city, the less corruption there was.
Beginning in 2016, Mamede was in Brazil, researching corruption. By July 2020, he had finished his doctorate and had started conversing with people across the world.
In 2022, he was invited to live in the U.S. to present his research. He did his postdoc at Illinois State University. When he finished in 2023, he wanted to go back to Brazil with his family.
But God had other plans.
“God, I need to go back to Brazil,” Mamede prayed in June 2024. “If you have a specific purpose for me in my life, to live in USA, especially, to do your purpose here, please, I just request for you one thing: give me an opportunity to teach in terms of a Christian university.”
He liked teaching at the Christian university in Brazil, and he was looking to immerse himself in that type of environment. He found an application for a position of management at Taylor. He applied, and he got the job.
As he taught at Taylor, Mamede continued to research. He said teaching and research walk hand-in-hand. God gave Mamede the opportunity to write a paper on his research and to present it in multiple environments.
Mamede shares his findings with his students.
He says it is all about the power of the Gospel. He tells his students that the Gospel is enough to change hearts.
“It's true,” he said. “God's word; it's enough. It's enough to change our hearts, because we are sinners, and we need to receive Jesus to clean our heart from every sin. But if you have some secular (people) or guys that don't believe in Jesus, I have secular information that is important, (saying,) ‘Hey, if you have more Christians in a specific location, we we are able to reduce the corruption.”
Mamede’s research has opened doorways to share the Gospel and to minister to people in other places as well.
He received the opportunity to present his paper at the American Counsel Association. Mamede ended up speaking with three Ivy League professors. He asked them if they thought Christian beliefs and values could help people avoid corruption.
Two men said they did not believe in God. One man was quiet.
“I said, ‘Please, Jesus, give me a chance,” Mamede said. “And after some minutes that we were talking, I asked him, because he was sitting beside me, ‘What do you think? Do you believe that God in terms of the gospel word is responsible for changing hearts and minds?’ And he said, ‘I believe.’”
Mamede thanked God that he could talk about his paper, but he said this was the best opportunity because he got to talk about God with his colleagues.
He shared his research and showed how the numbers support Christian values. The man said he had been away from God’s presence for some time. Mamede told him it was time to return to the Lord.
Mamede said God loves him and continues to love him, then he got the chance to pray over the man.
“I believe that God’s value, in terms of the Christians in this world, is responsible for change, is responsible to share the good news,” Mamede said. “And the good news is (that) Jesus in our heart is enough to change our behavior, to modify our acts and provide for us (with) an opportunity to be salt in terms of the world and especially light. So this is the main idea of this paper.”
