Maria Boutzeti

Maria Boutzeti holds a PhD in Political Communication in Social Media from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UOA) and works as a Strategic Communications & Public Affairs Adviser. She studied Communication and Mass Media at (UOA), earning a master’s degree with distinction in digital and interactive media.

In her doctoral dissertation, completed with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation and awarded unanimous distinction, she developed an original model of political communication that transcends the constraints of traditional media and focuses on the individual user. Her research aimed to produce more than just a political marketing application, proposing a new ecosystem of democracy where communities can be reconstituted. She explored how personalization, embedded in digital applications, can serve as a bridge rather than an obstacle, as a means of reconnection within an already fragmented public sphere.

With the firm belief that communication must foster participation and contribute to social cohesion, giving voice to those who feel unheard, her professional work—whether as an executive in institutions and companies or as an independent consultant—involves designing and overseeing information and awareness strategies on critical contemporary issues, such as the island economy, climate change, wildlife protection, sustainable waste management, transparency in public administration and its accountability to citizens, the integration of migrants into a rapidly changing world, children’s online safety, the empowerment of deaf and hard-of-hearing infants and toddlers, and youth participation in public life. She has also coordinated political campaigns at the European, national, and local government levels.

She believes in the power of words as a meaningful counterbalance to the violence that arises when institutions are challenged, injustices intensify, public debate becomes obscured, and individualism expands. For this reason, she writes regularly for popular media outlets, has published the essay collection “What Has Happened to Words? Assembling the Age in Greek”, and participates as a speaker in discussions on public life and contemporary public discourse.