Biography

Vanja Mladineo serves as Executive Director of Centre for Democracy and Law Miko Tripalo, the oldest think tank in Croatia. Aside from managing the organisation, she coordinates some of the Centre’s most impactful projects such as the Semafor Tool of Rule of Law, Good Governance and Anti-corruption in Local-self Government Units. European Values in a New Member State - Croatia in the First Five Years of EU Membership, Fighting SLAPP in Croatia, Strengthening the Capacity of Civil Society to Protect the Rule of Law in Croatia. She is a lecturer at the private university VERN in Zagreb where she teaches a crisis communication course.

Previously, she was the chief of staff at the Croatian Ministry of Science and Technology during the implementation of the Bologna Process reforms. She worked as a consultant for UNDP in Kyrgyzstan providing recommendation on making policy-making process more transparent, accountable and participative. She was the project manager of a World Bank funded project in the Croatian Government’s Communications Office aimed at developing a government-wide communications policy to support sweeping reforms prior to Croatia joining the EU. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University with a focus on political and economic development and a certificate from the Harriman Institute in East and Central Europe. She is the recipient of the CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy Fellowship, the Open Society Public Policy Fellowship and the Honorable Mention Award of the State Department Title VIII Prize for best policy papers.

As a Policy Leader Fellow, she will be researching innovative approaches civil society organisations use to protect the rule of law in Eastern and Central Europe. Her project will empower CSOs with best practices and advanced strategies to protect the rule of law and strengthen their role in safeguarding democracy.

Research projects, clusters and working groups

• Eastern Europe as Laboratory of Change

Fields of expertise