Dr Maya Vachkova

I am a systems thinker and a facilitator with a passion for social issues and participatory organisational transformations. I hold an LLM, an MA in Peace, Conflict and Development and a PhD in Systems Thinking.

I am the Programme Director for the MSc Systems Thinking in the Public Sector - an applied Apprenticeship for civil servants.

My external engagements are a membership and support of Metaphorum and a visiting fellowship at the Centre for Systems Studies at the University of Hull.

Contact me at m.v.vachkova@exeter.ac.uk

My hometown is Varna, Bulgaria where I attended the First Language School and then moved on to achieve an LLM at the University of Sofia in 2011. During the Arab Spring, I worked in the human rights and refugee sector in Bulgaria on domestic violence, refugee and civil rights projects. As such, I have facilitated multiple meetings between Government agencies in Bulgaria, the UNHCR and NGOs from the refugee sector, in order to find collaborative solutions to complex social issues.

Since then, I’ve had a keen interest in stakeholder engagement and marginalisation processes. I have researched the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, particularly the role of water management in sectarian violence. In 2016, I was awarded a full scholarship from the Centre for Systems Studies at the University of Hull, where I benefited from the mentorship and guidance of Professor Gerald Midgley, Professor Yasmin Merali and Professor Gerry Johnstone. Maya's PhD project was in systemic marginalization and identity processes, focusing on the face-veil ban in Bulgaria.

I am familiar with several methodologies for applied systems thinking, cybernetics and soft OR (the viable system model, critical systems heuristics, soft systems methodology, interactive planning, strategic assumption surfacing and testing, system dynamics – to name but a few). I’ve delivered systemic consultancies in SMEs from the Bulgarian food sector where I helped small businesses rethink their sales and distribution strategy. I participated in the first of its kind COVID-19 management evaluation project at a British NHS Trust. The project was an employee-led evaluation of the Trust’s COVID-19 management relying on the viable system model (VSM) to inform recommendations for the Trust. Additionally, I have delivered a number of other consultancies in the private sector in the States, UK and Bulgaria, reliant on multimethodology.

Research supervision:

Open to supervising and advising students who are interested in systems thinking, cybernetics, complexity and soft OR.