Dr Agathoniki Tsilipakou was born in Thessaloniki. She graduated from the German Gymnasium and Highschool of Thessaloniki (1984). She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the Department of Archaeology of the School of History and Archeology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Ioannina (1988), due to a scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation, and in German Philology from the Faculty of German Philology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1992). In 1993 she obtained a Master’s Degree from the Department of Archeology of the School of History and Archeology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as a scholarship holder of the State Scholarship Foundation. In 2002 she obtained her PhD from the same Department. Her doctoral dissertation: “Monumental painting in Veria in the 17th century” was published in 2012 by the Archaeological Institute of Macedonian and Thracian Studies. After her success in a pan-Hellenic competition (1989) she was admitted to the Archaeological Service of the Ministry of Culture. From 1991 to 2010 she served in the former 11th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities responsible for the Prefectures of Imathia, Pella, Kozani, Grevena, Florina and Kastoria. Since 2008, she has been Head of the Archaelogical Sites Department in the aforementioned Ephorate. Subsequently (2010), she was chosen after a judgment as a Head of a Directorate level and initially assumed the Directorate of the former 18th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities of Arta – Preveza. From February 2012 until April 2023 she was the Director of the Museum of Byzantine Culture and then assumed the position of the General Director at the same Museum.
Her scientific interests are related to issues of Byzantine and post-Byzantine archeology and art, mainly of the regions of Central and Western Macedonia, modern museology and administration of cultural organizations. She authored three monographs, educational files for primary and secondary education, numerous publications (more than 70) in scientific journals, while she participated in many Greek and international scientific conferences. She participated as an author in collective publications, as well as by writing relevant exhibit entries in scientific catalogues of temporary exhibitions. She has been curator or co-curator in more than fifteen temporary exhibitions and editor of scientific catalogues of temporary exhibitions and proceedings of scientific conferences. She organized or co-organized a series of scientific conferences and participated in a series of European and transnational co-financed projects.
She received honorable distinctions and awards from the Holy Metropolis of Beroia, Naoussa and Campania, the Municipality of Amyntaio (Florina Prefecture), the International Special Committee for Audiovisual Media (AVICOM) of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). She is a member of the Greek Committee for Byzantine Studies, the Christian Archaeological Society, the Society for the Study of History and Culture of Imathia and the Association of Greek Archaeologists.