Flaminia Macchia joined EURORDIS in 2004 as European Public Affairs Officer after having already worked for EURORDIS as a consultant.She now heads the European Public Affairs team in Brussels where her role is to increase EURORDIS influence on EU policies and programmes by collecting and analysing policy information, cultivating and expanding contacts important to EURORDIS, and helping to diversify financial resources.Before joining EURORDIS, Flaminia worked for over ten years in EU affairs at the European Commission (Euro-Mediterranean partnership), in the European Parliament as an assistant to an Italian MEP, and in the health team of a leading EU policy consultancy firm in Brussels.As a patient with the rare disease Colitis Ulcerosa, Flaminia has been active in the European rare disease community, more specifically in public health issues.Flaminia holds an honours degree from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Political Science with a specialisation in Middle Eastern Politics, and a Master of Arts in International Relations with a specialisation in EU Institutions and Middle Eastern Politics from the London School of Economics.An Italian national, Flaminia speaks Italian, English, French and Spanish.