Vasileia Digidiki, MSc, PhD
Director of the FXB Center Program on Distress Migration
Director of the FXB Summer Program on Migration and Refugee Studies
Dr. Vasileia Digidiki is a psychologist and internationally recognized expert in distress migration, child protection and human trafficking with more than 15 years of experience in research, education, and policy advocacy at the intersection of psychology, public health, and human rights. She is a Research Associate at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University where she serves as Director of the FXB Distress Migration Program and Director of the Harvard Summer Course on Migration and Refugee Studies. She is also a Thesis Director in Social Sciences at Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education and regularly teaches sessions across a range of courses, including at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the FXB’s G. Barrie Landry Child Protection Professional Training program.
After nearly a decade of leading the research portfolio of the FXB Center’s migration work, Dr. Digidiki formally assumed directorship of the distress migration program in 2025. Over the past 10 years, she has conducted more than 15 major research and policy projects across various regions —from the camps of Lesvos, Greece to detention centers in the U.S., and from communities in West and Central Africa, Libya, Poland, Mexico and Colombia, to Rohingya settlements in Cox’s Bazar. Her interdisciplinary research bridges psychology, law, and public health, with a deep focus on child protection in contexts of distress migration, human trafficking, and forced displacement.
She is widely recognized for her groundbreaking contributions to child protection research, including authoring the first global report on child trafficking commissioned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a landmark analysis based on data from over 63,000 cases, and the first report on the sexual exploitation of migrant children in Greece. She has led high-impact, multi-country studies supported by international organizations including the IOM, Profamilia, and BRAC.
From 2017 to 2024, Dr. Digidiki served as an Instructor at Harvard University. In 2022, she co-developed and now directs the Harvard Summer Course on Migration and Refugee Studies in collaboration with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens—a rigorous executive training that has trained over 80 emerging professionals from more than 30 countries and diverse fields including law, public health, humanitarian aid, and social work. She also taught in Harvard’s executive and online education programs and contributed to the development of a global training curriculum for professionals working with unaccompanied and separated children, in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde.
A prolific scholar, Dr. Digidiki has authored over 38 publications and currently serves as Senior Associate Editor for Behavioral Medicine (Taylor & Francis). Her work has shaped international policy discourse on distress migration and exploitation, with research featured in The Guardian, BMJ Opinion, The Lancet and in radio broadcasts. She has presented at high-level international fora, including the 61st Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly.
As a teacher and mentor, Dr. Digidiki has guided doctoral and graduate students across disciplines and has delivered guest lectures at institutions including Yale University, Tufts Fletcher School, Brandeis University, Boston College, Emmanuel College, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is committed to training the next generation of practitioners and scholars in child protection and migration.
Dr. Digidiki holds a PhD in Social and Clinical Psychology, two master’s degrees in Forensic and Social Psychology and a BA in Psychology. She has received numerous academic awards and scholarships, including the Harvard Health and Human Rights Fellowship and the Greek State Scholarship, and awards from the Greek Ministry of Education for academic excellence.
A native of the island of Lesvos, Greece, Dr. Digidiki speaks Greek, English, French and the Greek Sign Language. Her work as a first responder during the 2015–2016 refugee crisis continues to shape her justice-centered approach to research and policy.