Evi Hatzivarnava-Kazassi, has studied sociology (B.A. and M.Phil) at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK., She was Director of the Department of Research, Planning, Evaluation and Documentation of the Institute of Social Protection and Solidarity of Greece. She was involved in issues related to families and children both in terms of research but also in terms of planning and assessing projects. Her particular interests are focused on policies and programmes of family support, on families that are at risk or experience poverty and social exclusion and on work and family combination, mainly as regards parental leaves. She is particularly interested in the perspective of gender in family policies. She has published articles in books and journals on the above issues.

She is member of the international network on Leave Policy and Research, while in the past she was a member of the expert committee on children and families of the Council of Europe on behalf of the Greek Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. She is also a member of the Board of Home-Start Hellas, that supports families with young children and since 2011 she is chair of Home-Start Worldwide that supports and coordinates Home-Start associations in 22 countries.