Andria Spyridou Dr.Nat.Sc. is a mental health expert with over ten years of experience in the academy and international cooperation and holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Konstanz in Germany (2013).
In the academic sphere, Andria has served as a lecturer in universities of her home country, Cyprus, teaching in the faculties of psychology, health sciences, and medical school. She also served as a management committee member of two European COST Actions representing Cyprus, focusing on Perinatal Mental Health research and interventions through an interdisciplinary lens. Her interest in the humanitarian field began during her doctoral studies, where she led cross-cultural field research in different countries and public hospitals in the area of perinatal mental health and early childhood development.
She has been involved in projects focusing on Gender-Based Violence (GBV), psychosocial context analysis and leveraging mental health as key to peace-building processes. As a clinician, she supported immigrants, asylum seekers and torture survivors in Cyprus, Greece and Germany, notably providing treatment for complex PTSD.
For the past ten years, she has been working in the humanitarian field in complex emergencies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, West Sahara, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Malawi as an MHPSS coordinator, trainer, and advisor with international organizations. In post-disaster emergencies and during the COVID-19 response, she served as a delegate to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) in Latin America and the Caribbean Region.
Since 2021, she has been the regional Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Specialist for UNICEF’s Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office.
