Anna Maria Riedi appointed Director of the Department of Social Work

The University Board of the Bern University of Applied Sciences has elected Anna Maria Riedi as the new Director of the Department of Social Work. Mrs Riedi has been in charge of the master’s degree programme in social work at the Bern University of Applied Sciences since February 2018, a course which is organised and run in cooperation with three other Swiss universities.

Dr. Anna Maria Riedi, who was born in 1962, studied education and applied psychology at the University of Zurich. She was awarded a doctorate in 1995 after completing a thesis on the dialectics of emancipation and social security.

She has extensive knowledge of her subject and many years’ experience in teaching and applied research. From 2001 to 2018 she worked as a lecturer and project manager responsible for research and development at the Childhood, Youth and Family Institute of the Department of Social Work at Zurich University of Applied Sciences. She supervised research and development projects in the fields of parental support and advice, local government youth programmes, public services for children and young people, victim support and the disabled. Since February 2018 Mrs Riedi has been in charge of the cooperation, degree programme and student administration of the master’s degree in social work which is jointly organised and run by the Bern, Zurich and St Gallen Universities of Applied Sciences and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Mrs Riedi has an extensive network among the universities, government and politics. From 1995 to 2007 she was a member of the Zurich Cantonal Council. She is also a founder member of the Swiss Association for Social Work and the European Women’s College, and is also involved in voluntary work in the socio-educational and cultural aspects of social work. She is particularly interested in the development of children and young people.

Mrs Riedi will take up her new position on 1 April 2019 on the retirement of Professor Johannes Schleicher, Director of the Department of Social Work.