Dr Vassiliki Siafaka is an Associate Professor of Clinical Health Psychology and Deputy Head of the Department of Speech and Language Therapy, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, Greece. She worked for 13 years at the Psychiatric Department of the University General Hospital of Ioannina, and more specifically, at the Liaison Psychiatry Service. She has participated in the research team of the project “Smart Computing Models, Sensors, and Early diagnostic speech and language deficiencies indicators in Child Communication”, acronym “SmartSpeech” funded by the Region of Epirus, supported from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). She is participating in the research and educational program of the Psychiatric Department of the University General Hospital of Ioannina.

She has published numerous articles in scientific journals, is a reviewer in several international peer-reviewed journals and has participated in many Greek and international conferences presenting her scientific work. She is co-author in nine books and scientific editor in four.

She is also Supervisor and member of the Master’s Theses Examination Committees in postgraduate programs of the School of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Thessaly, as well as of Doctoral Theses conducted at the Department of Speech and Language Therapy and the Medical School of the University of Ioannina, at the Department of Public and of Community Health of the University of Western Attica and at the Department of Speech Therapy and Language Therapy of the University of Patras.

Her research interests include the processes of adaptation to chronic illness or disability, the psychological burden of parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders, the quality of life of patients and their families, as well as the effect of psychological, biological, environmental, and cultural factors on health and illness.