Valentina Hristakeva, Director,  GIP-Sofia

Valentina is a Bulgarian National. She graduated in Social Work at Burgas Free University (Bulgaria), is diplomat of master in psychosocial rehabilitation program. The professional carrier of Valentina started with the international Association of Reformers in Psychiatry in 1999. IN 2000 she joined GIP-Sofia in the position of Project and Finance Manager and since 2007 serves as its Director.

In the past years Valentina has been involved in number of projects aiming at reforming Mental health systems in the region of Southeast Europe and has gained extensive experience in organisational development, service design and management, policy development. Valentina has been very actively involved of the process of deinstitutionalization in Bulgaria, where the main interest is in applying human rights principles in service delivery.

Valentina is a member of number of committees and expert groups on local and national level for policy planning, namely: National council for mental health at the Ministry of Health, Executive committee for MH at the Municipality of Sofia, Expert group on deinstitutionalization at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Joint committee for designing national strategy for long-term care; Joint committee for development of a new Social assistance act; Thematic working group for designing OP HRD for the programming period 2021-2035 as representative for social inclusion; Working group on drafting a law on Natural persons and support measures.  

In 2024 Valentina has been awarded Geneva Prize for Human Rights in Psychiatry.