Natalya Vasilievna Chicherina - Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation. She has been working in the higher education system since 1992. She is a member of two dissertation councils: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen.
In 2009, Natalya  defended her doctoral dissertation in the specialty 13.00.02 Theory and methodology of teaching and education (foreign language, level of professional education) with the topic “The concept of developing media literacy among students of language departments based on foreign language media texts.”
Natalya Chicherina developed the concept of developing media literacy among language students in higher education and approaches to the analysis of modern media education in a changing social reality. Natalya Vasilyevna’s research interests also include interdisciplinary study of media texts from the perspective of media linguistics, media education and methods of teaching foreign languages, methods of teaching foreign languages ​​in the higher education system and pedagogy of higher education, and management of the educational process at the university.
From 2021 Natalya Chicherina is the director of the SPbPU Humanitarian Institute.