Miriam Chirilli

Miriam Chirilli serves as a Lecturer and Project Manager at the Center for Teaching and Professional Development within the School of Social Work at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), a role she assumed in 2025. Her position focuses on integrating practical field experience with academic instruction in social work education.

Education:

• MAS Child and Youth Services (ZHAW, 2024-2025)
• CAS Child and Adult Protection Law (ZHAW, 2023-2024)
• CAS Human Resources Management and Team Leadership – Practical Training in Social Work (ZHAW, 2022-2023)
• CAS Working with Mentally Ill Children and Adolescents (ZHAW, 2020-2021)
• Bachelor of Science in Social Work with focus on social pedagogy (HSLU, 2014-2018)

Research and Professional Expertise: Chirilli specializes in child and adolescent mental health interventions within welfare systems, combining aggression de-escalation techniques with social pedagogy frameworks. Her work bridges clinical practice in child psychiatry with legislative aspects of child protection law, emphasizing innovative service delivery models for vulnerable youth populations.

Teaching Leadership: She holds primary responsibility for Module 250 (Internship/supervised practical training with social pedagogy focus) and co-leads Modules 550 (New Concepts and Innovation internships) and 150 (Field Practice), shaping competency-based training for future social workers through real-world applications.

Professional Trajectory: Prior to her HSLU appointment, Chirilli served as Group Leader at Lucerne Psychiatry's child psychiatric therapy ward (2021-2025) and as Social Worker/Deputy Group Leader in youth residential care (2019-2021), building extensive frontline experience with cognitive and mental health impairments across age groups.