Pia Ammann, lic. phil. hum., received her Masters Degree in clinical and organisational psychology at the University of Bern. During her studies she focused on research on psychosocial stress (psychotraumatology, emergency psychology, grief, and coping with critical life events). She worked as an assistant at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Berne, and attended a research internship at the “Freie Universität” Berlin in a project on migration and education.

After her studies she worked at the Crisis Intervention Centre at the University Psychiatric Services in Berne, and as a research assistant at the institute for family research and counseling at the University of Fribourg. She joined SAD in March 2010 as a Project Officer for the project “Children affected by HIV/AIDS in southern Africa”.