Jona Olafsdottir is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Iceland. Her teaching focuses on topics such as drug addiction and domestic violence and she teaches both in classroom setting and supervising in field practice for students in social work. She holds an MA in Social Work from the University of Iceland. She is currently also pursuing a joint PhD in the field of families and drug addiction between the Department of Social Work, University of Iceland and University of Lapland, Finland. As a part of her PhD studies, she spent three months in 2012 conducting research at the University of Edinburgh on an exchange program and attended summer school on addiction at University of Amsterdam in 2014. Her research field is in alcohol and drug abuse and the impact addiction has on the family members and the family system. For the last fifteen years Jona has been working in the field of addiction both with the person is suffering from addiction as well as their family members. In 2007 she started her private practice providing clinical counselling for individuals with addiction and their families. 

 

Jona served as a board member of Social Workers Association of Iceland from 2008-2012 and she has been active as the founding chair of the Department of Social work on alcohol or drug abuse since 2009 which is part of the Social Workers Association of Iceland. On behalf of University of Iceland,  Jona serves as a board member in UArctic from 2014 which is a cooperative network of universities, colleges, research institutes and other organisations concerned with education and research in the northern regions.