Maria Sassi holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics and currently works as an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia, Italy. She has achieved the Italian Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (ASN) for the position of full professor.  

Her teaching duties include "Food Economics and Agricultural Development" and "Quantitative Policy Analysis for Development".

She is a member of the Technical Board of the Master Programme in Cooperation and Development organised by the University of Pavia, where she teaches a course on Food Security. Additionally, she serves as the local director of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degree in Global Development Policy (accessible at http://glodep.eu/). Furthermore, she holds the position of Country Representative of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (accessible at https://www.eadi.org/). She is vice president of the Commission for International Cooperation and Development of the University of Pavia. She is an Expert in the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument of the European Commission.
She is a project evaluator for the University of Pavia in the field of development cooperation and a representative of the University of Pavia in working and technical groups established at Italian institutions.

She participated in various international research projects, supported by the European Union, international organisations, governmental organisations, and NGOs. These projects mainly focused on food security issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, she has published articles in international journals on a variety of topics related to food security and agricultural development focused on the African context.
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Maria Sassi's professional interest in development cooperation extends to her social commitment, as exemplified by her role as the President of COOPI SUISSE (https://suisse.coopi.org).