Calliope Spanou
Calliope Spanou is a Greek academic who served from 2011 to 2015 as the Greek Ombudsman. She is currently a professor of administrative science at the National and [Kapodistrian University of Athens]. On 23 April 2023, she was sworn in as Minister for the Interior in a caretaker capacity, tasked with overseeing the election due to be held on 21 May.
Education
Spanou studied public law and political science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and went on to study administrative science at the University of Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens, France. During her university studies she was awarded two scholarships: one from the M. Stassinopoulos Foundation and another from the Ministry of National Economy Technical Cooperation Programme. Her doctoral dissertation was honoured by the French government with a publishing allowance. Speaking later of her time in France, she said: "You were a second-class person. The way they treated you – in their minds, we were immigrants."Academic career
In 1989, Spanou began teaching at the faculty of political science and public administration of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has also taught at the University of Picardie Jules Verne, the Panthéon-Assas University and the Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University. She has taught for several years at the National School of Public Administration in Greece and has also advised the National Centre of Public Administration and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.Her current research interests include public policy, civil service, citizen-administration relations and the Europeanization of public administration. She has published papers and books in Greek, French and English.