Andrea Dibben has been appointed Head of the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Malta.

Dr Dibben has been working at the University on a full-time basis since 2008, specialising in social policy, gender equality, and reproductive health. She has a PhD in Social Policy in University of Bristol.

In a 2017 interview with The Malta Independent, she said she grew up in a Bormla housing estate, became a mother when she was 17 years old, and pursued her university education while raising her daughter.

She has described this experience as fundamental to the development of her feminist outlook.

After graduating, Dr Dibben worked with the YMCA and later worked on community projects, research and training programmes before joining the University of Malta as a full-time assistant lecturer in 2008.

She is also involved in women’s rights activism and was Chairperson of the Women’s Rights Foundation between 2016 and 2021.