In her intervention, the new Principal asked for collaboration within all the university community to maintain the social prestige, the teaching quality and the excellent research activities of the university.  She promised that her new management will be based in “dialogue, negotiation and agreement”.

Mavi Mestre showed her gratitude to the previous principals, especially to Esteban Morcillo and Francisco Tomás, as she had worked in their management teams. She also expressed her gratitude to the members of the Executive Council and the other two people who had run in the elections for the Office of the Principal.

The new principal recalled the difficult times that state universities have been dealing with in the last few years due to the lack of resources, the increase of student’s fees, the decrease of grants... She thanked the Universitat de València for its efforts to reduce the impact of the crisis. Mavi Mestre indicated that new times are not free of problems. She asked for collaboration within all the university community to maintain the social prestige, the teaching quality and the excellent research activities of the institution.

Esteban Morcillo, who left office after his second mandate, expressed his gratitude to all the support that he had received from the university community in such difficult times. He stressed that he will not leave the institution because he will continue working as a professor and a researcher in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

Mavi Mestre was born in Oliva. She is a professor of Basic Psychology at the Universitat de València. She graduated in Philosophy and Educational Sciences and specialized in Psychology and Educational Sciences. She was given the national Award to the best grantee and the Extraordinary Bachelor’s Degree Award. She is a doctor in Psychology and obtained the Extraordinary Doctorate Award.

She is a specialist in teenagers in risk and family. She teaches this issues in Undergraduate and Master’s Degrees of the Universitat de València and in other Spanish and international universities.  Her educational activity has been recognized with six five-year bonuses.

Her research activity is focused in social inclusion and the quality of life among young people and teenagers.

As a director of a research group, she has been the leading researcher in competitive projects, including PROMETEO with the University of Missouri and the CONICET of Buenos Aires. She is currently working in the project PROMETEO on “socioemotional and personal competency such as preventing misfit conducts”.  She is author of more than 160 articles in national and international magazines, 23 books and 49 chapters of books.  She has tutored 16 doctoral theses. She is member of the International Association of Applied Psychology, the Sociedad Interamericana de Psicología, the Junta directiva de la Sociedad de Ansiedad y Estrés and the Sociedad Española de Historia de la Psicología. Her research activity has been recognised with six six-year bonuses of research.

She is committed with the transformation of the University. She was secretary of department, dean of the Faculty of Psychology, vice-principal of studies and vice-principal for Teaching Staff and Academic Planning of the Universitat de València.  She was elected Principal on the Universitat de València on March 6, 2018. The Decree 41/2018, April 6th, of the Council of the Valencian Government (DOGV April 10, 2018) indicates it.

The data of the new Executive Council can be consulted by clicking here.