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Carla Sabariego holds a degree in Psychology from the Universidade de São Paulo, followed by a two-year specialisation in Clinical Psychology at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo, both in Brazil. She completed both Master's degree in Public Health and Epidemiology and her PhD in Health Economics, with a focus on cost-effectiveness evaluations of rehabilitation programmes, at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany. Her habilitation, completed in 2016, focused on the implementation of the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a conceptual framework in clinical rehabilitation and public health. She completed the habilitation at the Medical Faculty of LMU Munich, where she worked for 15 years as a senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Public Health and Health Services Research.

From 2011 to 2018 she was a consultant with the WHO in the area of functioning and disability measurement: she mainly contributed to the development, pilot testing and implementation of the WHO and World Bank “Model Disability Survey” – a dedicated functioning and disability survey – in several countries worldwide. She also participated in the development and implementation of the WHO Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Indicators Manual. From May 2017 to July 2018 she worked at WHO’s Disability and Rehabilitation Programme of the Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention, in Geneva.

Carla Sabariego has participated since 2010 in a range European Commission projects, including EMPOWER (“European platform to PromOte Wellbeing and hEalth in the woRkplace", principal investigator), PATHWAYS ("PArticipation To Healthy Workplaces And inclusive Strategies in the Work Sector", principal investigator), MARATONE (“Mental Health Training through Research Network in Europe”, principal investigator), SYNCHROS (“SYNergies for Cohorts in Health: integrating the ROle of all Stakeholders”, project scientist), PARADISE (“Psychosocial fActors Relevant to BrAin DISorders in Europe”, work package leader), and STRATIF-AI ("Continuous stratification for improved prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of stroke patients using digital twins and AI", principal investigator). Due to the long-time work with European Commission projects and WHO, she has a very broad network of collaborators and solid experience in coordinating and leading large projects.

At the University of Lucerne, she was appointed in August 2024 as Full Professor for Rehabilitation and Healthy Ageing. She currently heads as vide dean the Department of Rehabilitation and Functioning Sciences of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine and is co-director of the Center for Rehabilitation in Global Health Systems, a WHO Collaborating Center since 2018. Due to her bridge professorship, she also leads the working group on Ageing, Functioning Epidemiology and Implementation at the Swiss Paraplegic Research, in Nottwil.

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