Dr Androulla Eleftheriou obtained her graduate and postgraduate degrees in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Virology, and Business Administration from London universities. She has been awarded a number of scholarships by the Cyprus government, the World Health Organization and the Fullbright Commission. Her postdoctoral fellowship was completed at the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA, USA.
From 1990 until August 2006, she was Head of the Virus Reference Centre of the Cyprus Ministry of Health. Since 2005 she has held the post of director of the Cyprus WHO Collaborating Centre. She worked closely with TIF on an official basis since 1993 as a Scientific Coordinator of TIF’s educational programme, and since 2006 she has obtained an official post serving as the Executive Director of the Federation. She also regularly acts as a WHO consultant on issues related to her field of expertise.
Through her work with TIF, Dr Eleftheriou has carried out numerous projects of local, national, regional and international scope, working closely with international experts, local health professionals and thalassaemia associations worldwide. She is involved in the development and coordination of many joint activities and projects with official health-related organisations and agencies, national and regional health authorities and with numerous disease and non-disease specific patient/parents organisations.
Dr Eleftheriou is a member of Cyprus Haemoglobinopathies Forum and acts as the Director of the Cyprus WHO Collaborating Centre of the Cyprus Ministry of Health. Furthermore, she participates in the European Union Committee of Experts in Rare Diseases (EUCERD) and has served on the Board of Directors of European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) and on the Advisory Board of the European School of Transfusion Medicine (ESTM). She has also been the President of the Cyprus Alliance for Rare Disorders (CARD) from 2016 to 2019, and has served as Assistant to the Directors of the e-Msc in Haemoglobinopathies course from 2006-2014.
A member of European Haematology Association (EHA) and the Chair of the Higher Scientific Committee of SITA (Sultan Sultan Bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Award, Dr Eleftheriou has published extensively in peer reviewed journals and is the author of numerous position papers. She has received a certification for Capacity Building from Harvard University and been awarded the Panos Englezos Award by TIF in 2003, for her contribution to the promotion of TIF’s mission and activities.
