Elena is a PhD candidate at the University of Milan Bicocca and a visiting scholar at the CRCF. She has studied in Italy and in the USA at the Intercultural Communication Institute in Portland (OR).
Her research and professional interests are mainly focused on youth justice and child protection as well as on intercultural sensitivity, social workers development and evaluation programs and interventions. Elena has worked as a social worker in child protection and community youth services since 2000 and is currently coordinating two district projects on youth justice innovative practice dissemination in Italy as well as a community youth service (www.offertasociale.it). She is also facilitating a self help group. In 2010, she worked as a teaching assistant and started teaching a first year social work course in 2011at the University of Milan Bicocca.