Elena is an MD and PhD graduate of the Medical School of the University of Crete and accredited Forensic Pathologist in Greece since 2007. She was involved in a European Union program with a Marie Curie fellowship (European Virtual Anthropology Network, MRTN-CT-2005-019564) with a 2.5-year tenure at the Spanish National Research Center (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas) in Madrid. Between 2010-2019 she worked as a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, in the field of Forensic-Anthropology, teaching two postgraduate programs (Forensic Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology). She was elected Assistant Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Crete in 2019 and was promoted to Associate professor in 2023. She is the director of the Department of Forensic Sciences and the Forensic Medicine Unit (FMU) of the University of Crete. She is the only forensic practitioner FASE certified as Forensic Anthropologist (level 1) in Greece, the first Greek national with a diploma in Forensic Radiology and Virtopsy from the University of Zurich (2017) and the first forensic pathologist in Greece to apply post-mortem CT in forensic casework (since 2016).
She is the Director of the English PG Programme “Forensic Medicine, Anthropology and Imaging” which runs since 2023, is unique of its kind and has attracted a great number of students from several countries. Elena has successfully supervised >120 postgraduate theses, two Masters of Research (MScR), and 15 doctoral degrees (main supervisor in 13) of which 11 have been successfully completed.
She is the author of more than 100 English-language publications on Forensic Medicine, Forensic Anthropology, Forensic Imaging, Bone Histology and Biology in international journals. She is the founding member of the Hellenic Society of Medical Forensics and Forensic Sciences, one of the representatives of Greece at the International Academy of Forensic Medicine and member of the board of directors of the Forensic Anthropology Society Europe.