Biography

Irene Katsama is, since 2018, an Assistant Professor, in School Social Work at the Department of Social Work, Democritus University of Thrace. She teaches in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Program of Studies.
She is a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Postgraduate Program: "Social Work in Education - Integration of Diversity" and a member of the Committee of the Interdepartmental Postgraduate Program: "Counseling".
She is also the Deputy Scientific Supervisor of the Laboratory of Social Work and Community Social Work and Counseling of Democritus University of Thrace.
Member of the Scientific Committee of the Hellenic Society of Counseling and Orientation.
Member of the Thinking Groups (THINK TANK) of the LSE Alumni Association for the year 2018 - 2019 and participation in the writing of a proposal for the revision of Article 5 of the National Constitution (The proposal was submitted to the Greek Parliament).
Member of the new Registry of Educators of the National Center for Public Administration and Local Government (EKDDA). With the selected section: Innovative Actions in Education.
Awards
Member of the team that designed and implemented the primary prevention program at the 132nd Elementary School of Athens in 2000-2002, which won the first international Mentor Foundation award among 150 nominations from 49 countries.
Research interests
Her research interests focus on topics such as school social work, bullying among primary school students, parent-teacher counseling, multiculturalism, addiction prevention, and mental health promotion for children and adolescents.
Studies
She studied Social Work at the Department of Social Work (TEI of Athens), received a Master's degree in Criminology from the Department of Sociology of the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London in 1996 and received her PhD from the Department of Social Administration at Democritus University of Thrace in 2013.
Professional, research and teaching experience
She worked for twenty years (1997-2018) as a social worker in the field of prevention and treatment of addictions and child abuse, in Center for Dependent Individuals and the Prefecture of Attica. She has had teaching experience in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs of studies, since 2002 as a Scientific Associate of the Department of Social Administration, Department of Social Work of Democritus University of Thrace Scientific Associate in the Department of Social Work of the TEI of Athens , Lecturer at the University of Nicosia - Cyprus, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Social Work Program.
Participation in important research projects
Participation in the TEMPUS Program: "Modernizing Social Work Education and Teaching in Russia" (2009-2011), in which the Department of Social Administration of DUTH participates together with the Departments of Social Work of the Universities of Lincoln, UK and Siengen, Germany and concerns the respective departments of the Universities: Kazan State Medical University, Nizhnii Novgorod State University, Samara State University, Mrs. Saratov State Technical University.
Publications
She has published sixteen (16) articles and chapters in books, collective volumes, articles in scientific journals with critics in the field of social work in education, prevention of bullying, promotion of mental health, child protection, recent indicative publications in English are:

• Katsama, Ι. (2021). Promoting positive parenting: a group social work intervention in a workplace setting, Journal of Social Work Practice, DOI: 10.1080/02650533.2021.1926223

• Katsama, I. & Bakirtzi, S. (2020). School Social Work and inclusion of refugee students in Greek schools: Teachers’ perspectives and experiences. In J. Madalińska-Michalak (Ed.) Quality Teachers and Quality In-service Teacher Education. Key Concepts Series, Foundation for the Development of the Education System, Warsaw. pp. 186-209. DOI: 10.47050/66515321.186-210.

• Katsama, I., Bourmpaki, E. (2017). Bullying in primary education. A social work intervention with students. Journal of Education and Social Policy. Vol. 4, No3, pp. 98-111. www.jespnet.com