Our Coordinators

Dr. Anna Andreeva is the Erasmus coordinator of the Faculty of Public Health, Health Care and Sport. She received a bachelor’s degree in Special Pedagogy – Logopedics and Hearing Rehabilitation, a master’s degree in Voice and Fluency Disorders and a PhD degree in the field of Hearing Disorders from South-West University „Neofit Rilski”, Bulgaria. Her research interests are focused on prevention, assessment and therapy for people with hearing and voice disorders, play for children with disabilities and implementation of robotic and assistive technologies in speech and language therapy and practice. She participated in many national and international scientific projects.

Dr. Andreeva conducted short specialization about Computerized Speech Lab and Acoustical Voice Analysis with PRAAT at the Gent University, Belgium. She has specialized in Using NAO humanoid robot in speech and language therapy with hearing impaired children at Cyprus Interaction Lab, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus as a Short Scientific Mission in the frame of COST Action TD 1309 Play for Children with Disabilities. Dr. Andreeva has presented lecture courses under Erasmus program at Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus and University of Lodz, Poland.

She is a member of national and international scientific organizations – Union of Scientists in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Public Health Association, European Public Health Association, World Federation of Public Health Associations, International Cluttering Association (ICA), Bulgarian Stroke Society.

Professor Milena Filipova is the Head of Management and Marketing Department and Erasmus coordinator of the Faculty of Economics of Southwest University “N. Rilski”. Her scientific interests are in the field of managerial decision making, crisis management, competition and competitiveness, leadership and leadership competencies.

She has presented lecture courses abroad in the following universities: University of Ostrava, Czech Republik; University of Economics and Humanities, Bielsko Biala, Poland; University of  Deusto, Bilbao, Spain; University of Aveiro, Portugal; University of Kragujevac, Serbia; University of Sumi, Ukraine.

Maya Chochkova obtained her master’s degree in Chemistry from the South-West University in 2000. She conducted her PhD studies at the same University under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Tsenka Milkova, DSci, and graduated in 2006 (Bioorganic Chemistry, Chemistry of Natural and Physiologically Active Substances).

She conducted specializations at the University of Technology, Institute for Analytical Chemistry, Micro- and Radiochemistry (Graz, Austria), “Еötvös Loránd University” (Budapest, Hungary) and Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania).

Assoc. Prof. Gergana Georgieva, PhD, holds a prominent position at the South-West University “Neofit Rilski” in Blagoevgrad, where she serves as the Scientific Secretary and Erasmus+ Coordinator for the Faculty of Law and History. Within the Department of International Law and International Relations, she actively engages in seminars focusing on English for Specific Purposes, with a particular emphasis on Legal and Political English, as well as the Terminology of the European Union.

With a robust background in teaching, she specializes in various facets of International Law, International Relations, and European Union studies, including courses on the History and Tendencies in its Development, Multilingualism in the European Union, EU Institutions, and International Disputes and Conflicts.

Her diverse scientific interests encompass mass media, communication, human rights, artificial intelligence, national security, fake news, propaganda, hate speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech.

Beyond her academic responsibilities, she contributes significantly to the field as a member of the editorial boards of esteemed journals, including Kutafin Moscow State Law University’s International Editorial Council and the International Journal of Humanities and Social Development Research in Baku, Azerbaijan. She is a Cooperating Reviewer for Historia i Świat journal at the University of Natural Sciences and Humanities in Siedlce, Poland, and a member of the Bulgarian European Studies Association (ECSA-Bulgaria).

Engaging in international collaboration, Assoc. Prof. Georgieva has presented courses abroad as an Erasmus+ lecturer at the University of Natural Sciences and Humanities in Siedlce, Poland (2018), as well as at Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași, România (2023). Her involvement extends to various projects supported by the European Union Erasmus+ program, such as YOUTH WORK 4 PEACEBUILDING (2023) and INTEGRATED LEARNING FOR PEACE (2023).

She has pursued specialized training in EU Gender Equality Law and EU Anti-Discrimination Law at the Academy of European Law in Trier, Germany.

In recognition of her commitment to fostering multicultural understanding, Assoc. Prof. Georgieva serves as the Representative of Bulgaria for the International Multicultural Network. 

Prof. Dr. Marinella Mladenova is the Erasmus coordinator of the Faculty of Philology. She graduated in Slavic Philology (Bulgarian and Czech) at the Paisii Hilendarski University (Plovdiv) and in General and Comparative Linguistics at the Kliment Ohridski University (Sofia). Assistant professor of Contemporary Bulgarian Language at the Neofit Rilski University (since 1987), Associate professor of Comparative Grammar of Slavic Languages (since 2003), professor of General and Comparative Linguistics (since 2022). She has taught Bulgarian language and Culture at the University of Bratislava for four years (1998-2002) and at the University of Szeged for three years (2007-2010). Prof. Mladenova is a member of the International University Seminar in Balkan Studies and of the Editorial Boards of the Journals Balkanistic Forum (Blagoevgrad), Homo Bohemicus (Sofia)  and Uluslararası Toplumsal Bilimler Dergisi (Ankara).

 Her scientific interests are in the field of comparative Slavic linguistics, Slavic micro-linguistics, contemporary Banat Bulgarian language, changes in the Bulgarian language, Bulgarian as a foreign language etc.

She has presented lecture courses abroad in the following universities: University of Szeged (Hungary), Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republik); Ankara University (Turkey), Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin, Poland), Jagiellonian University (Krakow), (Poland), University of Tirana (Albania) Yerevan Brusov State University (Armenia), Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia) etc.

Assoc. Prof. Fatima Sapundzhi, PhD, is a member of the Department of Communication and Computer Engineering and Technologies and Erasmus coordinator of the Faculty of Engineering of South-West University “Neofit Rilski”.

Fatima Sapundzhi specialized in IRISA – Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires – University of Rennes 1, France; “In silico tools for drug discovery”, University of Siena, Italy; „Applied Dynamic Programming”, DAAD-Project, Ohrid, Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, University in Skopje, Macedonia; “Numerical Optimization and Applications”, DAAD-Project, Novi Sad, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Novi Sad, Serbia; School for Young Scientist, Biomath2019- Bedlevo, University of Warsaw, Poland.

She is a member of national and international scientific organizations: Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians, European Peptide Society, Bulgarian Peptide Society, and Union of Scientists in Bulgaria.

Blagovesta Dafkova, PhD, is the Erasmus coordinator of the Department of Psychology. He has a bachelor’s degree in speech therapy and a master’s degree in legal psychology. The doctoral degree is in the field of Pedagogical and Age Psychology from South-West University “Neofit Rilski”. Research and interests are related to child psychology, neuropsychology and language disorders. She participated in numerous practical trainings. Certified Montessori specialist, as well as an accredited trainer from “The International Education Atsademi Pvt” according to Australian methodology/ theory and practice. She has undergone theoretical and practical training in biofeedback therapy.

He has been working with children with problems and their families for 10 years.

Assoc. Prof. Mario Marinov, PhD is the Head of Laboratory for Sociological Research and Erasmus+ coordinator of the Faculty of Philosophy. Author of in-depth sociological studies of new religious movements, other research interests incude sociology of religion and qualitative research methods. He has publications in Bulgaria, UK, USA, Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, North Macedonia, Serbia, Germany, Switzerland, and Romania. One of the researchers for Bulgaria in the European Values Studies – 1999, 2008 and 2017. Participant in many other European research projects. He has taught at four universities in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic and has also lectured in universities in the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, Romania, Poland, Turkey, Italy, and North Macedonia. Lecturer in nine Erasmus Intensive programs. Member of the editorial boards of five academic journals in Europe and Asia.

Chief assistant professor Dr. Miroslav Terziyski is the Erasmus coordinator of the Faculty of Pedagogy at the South-West University “Neofit Rilski”.
He graduated from Foreign Language High School “Academician L. Stoyanov” in Blagoevgrad. 
He has a bachelor’s in International Relations, a Master’s in European Integration, and a PhD in Political Sciences.
His scientific interests are in the management of education, civics, comparative education, well-being, bullying, European educational initiatives, etc.
He is participating in several national and international projects.
He is the head of the Master’s program in Educational Management.