Dr Marie Therese Cuschieri (left)
Dr. Marie Therese Cuschieri (Ph D) has a background in gender equality and sports. She read her PhD in Loughborough University, UK in 2008-2014, on the funding of Olympic Solidarity (IOC). She has a Masters in Sport management (MEMOS 2006) and a Diploma in Gender and Development from the University of Malta (1999). She was chairperson of the Malta Women’s Lobby.
Dr Marie Therese Cuschieri (Ph D) has worked for several years in the management of family business. She founded Starlites Basketball Club which managed and promoted several years. In parallel with her study in the UK, she was part of the Loughborough University, Self-Assessment Team, Athena Awards programme which looks at good practice for recruiting, retaining and promoting women in Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) in Higher Education. Furthermore, she was a member in the Strategic Board for Athlete Development of the Aquatic Sports Association (ASA) of England.
Locally, she occupied a number of important posts in Maltese sport organisations, including Vice-President of Malta Basketball Association. She was Director on the Executive Board of the Maltese Olympic Committee, whilst Chef de Mission for Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games and Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
She was administrator at Chamber of Advocates and Kamra tal-Periti. In 2017 she filed a Constitution Case against the Attorney General; the Notarial Act discriminated against women by included the name of the ex-husband and the status of divorced women in a promise of sale/contract. She won the case in 2020.
Dr Andreana Dibben (right)
Dr Andreana Dibben is a social policy academic and feminist activist whose work spans research, teaching, and public advocacy. She is a senior lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Malta, holding a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Bristol, where she conducted long-term ethnographic research with pregnant teenagers and young mothers in Malta. This work became the foundation for her broader academic interests in reproductive justice, feminist mothering, and abortion care in restrictive regimes. She supports academic publishing as the editor-in-chief of Studies in Social Wellbeing within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing. In addition, she also forms part of the Malta ESPAN team, contributing to the European Social Policy Analysis Network’s comparative work on social policy trends, welfare systems, and social inequalities.
Andreana graduated as a social worker and began her career working in the field of homelessness—an experience that profoundly shaped her understanding of structural inequality, vulnerability, and the lived realities of those navigating exclusionary welfare systems. These early professional encounters continue to ground her academic practice in an ethic of care and a commitment to social justice. She is a prominent figure in Malta’s feminist and reproductive rights movements. A Board Member of the Women’s Rights Foundation since 2016, she contributes expertise in gender policy, research, and public education initiatives. As a founder of Voice for Choice, Malta’s reproductive rights coalition, she has played a central role in shaping public debate, raising awareness, and advocating for evidence-based reproductive health reform. She is also active as a resident participant in Azzjoni Tuna Artna Lura, supporting community-led efforts to safeguard public land and promote sustainable, democratic planning in the Cottonera region.
Within the University of Malta, Andreana has held several leadership roles, including serving as Director and later Chairperson of the Cottonera Resource Centre. This university-based unit supports research, teaching, and engagement activities in the region. She served on the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (2010–2013) and was a member of the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society’s Observatory for Living with Dignity (2015–2019).
Andreana is married and the mother of two adult children, and she places great value on cultivating a healthy work–life balance. Outside her professional commitments, she enjoys dance, crochet, writing, reading, trekking and travelling—activities that nourish her creativity, wellbeing, and sense of connection to the world.
(Photo Credit: Therese Debono)
