Faculty

Konstantinos Papadopoulos is a Professor in “Education of Individuals with Visual Impairments” at the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia. In July 1995 he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Rural and Surveying Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Five years later he was proclaimed Doctor of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering. His PhD thesis concerned the Tactile Cartography and Tactile Maps for individuals with blindness. He has been funded by the State Scholarship Foundation for a period of three and a half years (1996-2000) to fulfill his PhD studies. In February 2001 he became an Adjunct Faculty of the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia. In 2003, he became Adjunct Faculty of the Department of Geomatics and Surveying of the Faculty of Applied Technology in the Technological Educational Institution of Serres. In March 2006, he became Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia and in 2014 he became Full Professor. Dr. Papadopoulos has participated in more than 15 funded research projects. He was the project coordinator in 7 of them for the last 10 years (over 2.7 million Euros total budget). His research interests focus on a range of vital subjects of education and rehabilitation of individuals with visual impairments, such as adaptive behavior, social inclusion, social support, spatial (environmental) accessibility, digital accessibility, assistive technology, transition assessment and planning, orientation and mobility, spatial skills, tactile pictures and maps, audio-tactile material.

Anastasia Psalti is a Professor of School and Counseling Psychology at the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia where she transferred from the Department of Early Childhood Education and Care of the International University of Greece-Sindos after 21 years of being a faculty member there. She holds a Master's degrees in School Adjustment Counseling and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in School Psychology from Northeastern University in the USA and a PhD in School Psychology from the Department of Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. For 10 years she maintained a private practice as a school psychologist in Thessaloniki and worked as a Consultant-School Psychologist at Pinewood International School in Thessaloniki between 1994-1999. She has taught in a large number of postgraduate programs at several academic institutions in Greece, has been a Visiting Professor at universities in Turkey, Norway and Belgium through the Erasmus program, and has participated in a large number of funded training programs. Since 1995, she has been participating, either as a principal researcher or as a member of the research team, in national and European programs on gender equality, family violence, bullying at school, cyberbullying, multicultural education, and teachers' wellbeing. She is also an active participant in the LGBTI+ Research Network of the Applied Psychology Laboratory of Panteion University in Athens. She has published in scientific journals and collective volumes and participated in numerous Greek and international conferences. Her research interests include: diversity and social justice in School & Counseling Psychology, problematic media use in children and adolescents, digital parenting, e-professionalism, and the role and identity of school psychologists.

Eleni Koustriava is an Associate Professor in “Education of Individuals with Disabilities with the Use of Assistive Technology” at the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia. In 2006 she obtained her Bachelor’ s degree in Philology (Greek Language and Literature) - major in Linguistics from the Department of Philology (School of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece). In 2008 she graduated from the postgraduate program in Special Education of the Department of Educational and Social Policy (School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of Macedonia, Greece) and in 2013 she proclaimed Doctor of the same department. Her PhD thesis referred to Distance Learning of Individuals with Visual Impairments with the Use of Assistive Technology. The same year started her professional collaboration with the University of Macedonia when she became Adjunct Faculty Member of the Department of Educational and Social Policy. In 2017 she was elected Assistant Professor in the same department. She has been team member in 9 (co-)funded projects and the project coordinator in one Erasmus+ European co-funded project of 1 million Euros grant approximately. She has been awarded 4 times from the Research Committee of the University of Macedonia for her publications. Her research interests concern assistive technology, special education with the use of ICTs, distance learning for individuals with disabilities, spatial and digital accessibility, orientation and mobility as well as spatial skills of individuals with visual impairments.

Doxa Papakonstantinou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Educational and Social Policy, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts of the University of Macedonia, with the subject "Labor Relations and Support for Persons with Disabilities in the Workplace." She has a law degree from the Law Department of the School of Law and Economics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a Master's Degree in Commercial and Economic Law from the Law Department of the Aristotle University Thessaloniki. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia. Her research and educational interests include social and occupational integration, workplace social support, labor relations and employment policies for people with disabilities nationally and internationally, mobbing, harassment as a form of discrimination, and sexual harassment of people with disabilities. in the workplace. Her research interests also include access to the labor market for young people outside employment, education, and training (NEETs). She teaches in the Postgraduate Programs "Education Sciences: Adult Education, Special Education" and "Special Education, Education, and Rehabilitation," of the University of Macedonia; at the same time, she has taught at the Postgraduate Program in the direction of "Special Education" of the Department of Primary Education of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has participated in research programs that promote the education and transition to the labor market of people with disabilities, such as Trans2Work and PACES. At the same time, she presents significant writing activity in her field with monographs and publications in internationally recognized scientific journals. She serves on the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation Editorial Board and is a regular reviewer of international journals such as BMJ Open, Disability and Rehabilitation, and Journal of Career Development.

Isavella Kotini is a member of Laboratory Teaching Staff in the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia. She received her Diploma in Computer Engineering and Informatics from the University of Patras, Greece, her Master of Education degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from the University of Nicosia, Cyprus and her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She has served as a teacher and an educational counselor for informatics in secondary education of Greece. Also, she has taught various courses in Computer Science, including Database Systems at the Department of Informatics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Computer Graphics at the Department of Applied Informatics of the University of Macedonia, Information Systems at the Department of Informatics of the International Hellenic University, as well as Algorithms, Computation Theory-Formal Languages and Automata at the Department of Informatics of the Hellenic Open University. Her research interests include the areas of computational thinking, distance learning, collaborative learning and gamification, system modeling and analysis, formal methods, computation theory and automata, web-based collaborative applications. She has published more than 45 articles in refereed national and international conference proceedings, chapters in books, and journals, as well as she has participated in authoring schoolbooks and educational supporting material. She is a member of the Greek Computer Society and the Technical Chamber of Greece.