Maria Sitzoglou is an urban designer and participatory planning expert. She has extensive experience in urban resilience projects with a portfolio ranging from policy design to hands-on community projects. Her specific focus is on developing Child Friendly Cities as she has been working with local authorities and stakeholders in developing children participation strategies and programs as well as guidelines for street design and school infrastructure design through the pedagogical perspective. She has been a Child Friendly Cities advisor for the 100RC pioneered by Rockefeller Foundation (currently Global Resilient Cities Network) and she is working for the ERDF - Urban Innovative Actions Initiative as the urban expert for the OASIS Schoolyards project led by the City of Paris, France. Moreover, she is involved in large scale urban development projects responsible for stakeholder and public engagement strategies. In the past she has been the Deputy Chief Resilient Officer (CRO) for the City of Thessaloniki, Greece within the frame of the 100RC program. Furthermore, she has international experience with urban design projects in Morocco, Spain, USA, Vietnam and France. Maria holds a master of science in urban design from UC Berkeley, USA and a master's degree in architecture from Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.