Sotiria Makaroni,
B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.c

Sotiria studied Psychology at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Department of Psychology (1999) and graduated from City University of London with a degree in Health Psychology (2000). She is a Ph.D. candidate at the Athens School of Medicine, designing, implementing and utilizing global programs for dealing with dangerous behaviors in adolescence.

She has specialized in cognitive-behavioral therapy, systemic therapy for couples and families and sexual therapy at the University Research Institute of Mental Health in Athens.

She has worked at an Adolescent Mental Health Unit (NHS) in London and as an Assistant Researcher at the Institute of Preventive Medicine at the Athens Medical School. Sotiria has participated in many training programs in the field of prevention, addiction and addictive behaviors, the promotion of psychosocial health, smoking cessation, family therapy and more. She is a recognized trainer in various prevention programs (LIONS QUEST, UNPLUGGED and others). Since 2003, she has been running school-based programs for the education of teachers and students in primary and secondary education, on topics such as addiction prevention, internet security, bullying, parent groups, at the Center for Addiction Prevention and Promotion of Psychosocial Health "PRONOH" in the municipality of Kifissia - OKANA.

She also provides training and supervision to healthcare professionals implementing health promotion and prevention programs. Since May 2014, she is the Director of the Addiction Prevention Center "PRONOI" and has the responsibility of coordinating and supervising the development and implementation of health promotion and prevention programs in society based on tangible data. She has also collaborated with the Institute for Biological Research, Academy of Athens (IIBEAA) in smoking prevention programs and is a collaborator of the Adolescent Health Unit at the University Pediatric Hospital where he implements internet addiction prevention programs and internet security. Sotiria is a member of the Titan School, a university network that aims to educate Greek freshmen about smoking cessation.