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Dr. Dionysia-Theodora Avgerinopoulou is a leading politician on environmental matters. She serves as a member of the Greek Parliament with the New Democracy party and as the Chair-Person for the Special Permanent Committee of Environmental Protection of the Greek Parliament. She has served as the Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee of the Global Water Partnership Organization (GWPO) in Stockholm, Sweden, and as the Head of Water of the Energy and Environment Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, France. Dr. Avgerinopoulou has also served as the Chairperson of the Standing Committee for the UN Affairs of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in Geneva, Switzerland, the Chairperson of the Circle of the Mediterranean Parliamentarians on Sustainable Development (COMPSUD), the Vice-Chair for the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development (MCSD), and a Member of the Hellenic Parliament and Chair of the Environment Committee of the Hellenic Parliament, in Athens, Greece. In 2015, Dionysia-Theodora was nominated as a candidate for the position of the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) by the Hellenic Republic. In 2013, she was nominated for the position of the Deputy Executive Director of UNEP by the Hellenic Republic.
She served twice as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament, as well as the Chairperson of the Special Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Environmental Protection, its Subcommittee of the Watercourses, and the Chairperson of the National Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee. She has served as the President of the Parliamentary Committee of Friendship between Greece and Botswana, the Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee of Friendship between Greece and the Netherlands, and a Member of the Parliamentary Committees of Friendship between Greece and the U.S.A., Russia, Kenya, Israel, and Albania. She has served as the Deputy Secretary of Volunteerism and NGOs and the Deputy Head of the Environmental Policy Sector of the New Democracy Party. Dr. Avgerinopoulou was a member of the Committee regarding the Genetically Modified Organisms of the Greek Ministry for Environment, Energy and Climate Change.
In 2011, Dr. Avgerinopoulou was elected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum for her leadership in environmental protection. In the same year, she received the “Green Star” Award by UNEP/OCHA/Green Cross International for her efforts in preventing and responding to environmental emergencies. She was also selected among the “40Under40” of the EU, namely among the most distinguished 40 leaders of the European Union under the age of 40. In 2010, she also received a Special Congressional Recognition for her “outstanding efforts and invaluable contributions on behalf of Hellenic Students and the environment” and the Global Citizenship Award for Leadership in Assisting Humanity by Orphans International Worldwide in 2010. In 2009, she received the international Goddess Artemis Award by the Euro-American Women’s Council for her contribution to transatlantic cooperation between the U.S. and the EU on environmental and climate change issues, as well as a Recognition by the Mayor of Athens of “her contribution in promoting the Hellenic spirit worldwide.”
Dionysia-Theodora is also an attorney-at-law. She has previously worked, among others, at the Legal Service of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, the Permanent Mission of the European Union at the United Nations in New York, U.S.A., the Center on Environmental and Land Use Law of the New York University School of Law in New York, the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Yale Law School in New Haven, C.T., U.S.A. and the International and Foreign Law Institute in Athens, Greece. She teaches Public International Law, International Environmental Law, European Environmental Law, Law of Sustainable Development, Climate Change Law and Energy Law. She is also the Director and Co-founder of the European Institute of Law, Science and Technology.
Dionysia-Theodora received a first degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Greece, and an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. She also holds a Doctorate in International Environmental Law (J.S.D.) from Columbia University School of Law. She is the author of several academic articles on environmental and international issues.