Smaragda Papadopoulou studied at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She completed her first degree at the Department of Primary Education (1990). She specialisd in postgraduate studies at the School of Education, Health, Nursing and Arts Professions (SEHNAP) New York University, New York, USAin the field of "Language, Children's Literature and Culture". (1992), while simultaneously working as a teacher at Holy Trinity Cathedral School , Manhattan, N. Y. in kindergarten and 4th grade at the Hellenic American School of the Greek Archdiocese and the Greek Ministry of Education as a teacher of Greek. Her doctoral thesis was supervised by the late Christos Tsolakis and concerned creative writing with children in the Whole Language Approach (1998). He worked in public and private education for ten years. In 2001 she was appointed lecturer at the University of Ioannina in Greece with academic progression up to the rank of professor of the first grade (2020).

She was a member of the temporary Administration board of the Department of Environmental Management and New Technologies in Agrinio, vicepresident of the Ioannina Teaching School and a member of many cultural institutions.

She has a rich scientific work with monographs and articles on the Humanities field of her scientific activity and scientific articles of international recognition and national scope in language and teaching literacy and Language Arts.

She has a rich research work in producing and supervising the education of foreign students with educational textbooks as an author of educational books in Teaching Greek as a second language. She has moved at the same position at the Hellenic International University of Thessaloniki at the School of Social Sciences and the Department of Pedagogy and Early childhood Education and Care (2022-). She was the director of the Laboratory for Studies of Hellenism Abroad and Intercultural Education and the Laboratory for Language, LanguageTeaching and Culture.

Under the literary pseudonymSmaragda Mandadaki is widely known in the field of writing her literary works with poems in literary magazines initially and with novels and poetry for adults and children's books. In 1993 her first novel "The Dreams of the Prophet" was published, whichwas distinguished with an interview with Vasilis Vasilikos on ERT 2 and with interviews and book reviews. ΡΑShe also collaborated with the ministry of Culture to produce a children's magazine, to PAGONI for Thessaloniki as Cultural capital city in 1997.

She has taught as a visiting professor in Odessa,(with an invitation from the Ministry of Education for our Greek population education abroad), at the Department of  Greek Philology in Bucharest, in Krakow, at the Pedagogical University of Krakow, North and South America etc.

Her teaching experience in primary education and at the Higher Education Institutes in Ioannina is accompanied by a continuous presence in cultural issues with events and book reviews of art and literature in Greece and abroad works and essays on literary writing. Her books are published by Publishing Houses such as Armos, Metaichmio, Kastaniotis, Apopeira, and Gutenberg. She has organized and participated in many cultural events in Greece and in co-operation of international educational and cultural organizations.