Frontiers news
19 Aug 2025
Lucia Berdondini – Science in service, beyond borders: Celebrating women leaders in global humanitarian efforts
Dr Lucia Berdondini is an associate professor of psychology at the University of East London and course leader of DL MSc Humanitarian Intervention at the School of Childhood and Social Care. She is also a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Accredited Gestalt Physiotherapist. She has worked extensively with psychosocial intervention in countries in war and conflict, existential therapies, and intercultural counselling. With over two decades of experience, Dr Berdondini’s research and teaching focuses on psychosocial support, trauma, and counselling in international and humanitarian contexts. Her global fieldwork spans conflict-affected regions in Africa and Asia, where she has contributed to capacity-building and mental health projects for displaced populations and communities in crisis. Recently, she has been involved in creating a portal with online resources for humanitarian professionals, which can be found here. She has also been collaborating with Vilnosvita, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on playback theater as a form of crisis intervention.
