Education, academic and scientific titles:
- B.A. in political science at the Faculty for Social Sciences (FSS) University of Ljubljana (UL); Thesis subject: “Participation of citizens in urban municipality of Ljubljana” (2004);
- PH.D in political science at the FSS, UL; Doctorate subject: “Urban management: city administration reform” (2010);
- Assistant professor at Department for Policy analyses and public administration (FSS, UL) (since 2010).
Employment and work experience:
-Research fellow at the Institute for social sciences (FSS, UL) (2006–2010);
-Teaching assistant at the FSS (UL), Department for Policy Analyses and public administration (2010–2012);
-Researcher at the Centre for the Analysis of Administrative-Political Processes and Institutions (2009-2013);
-Researcher at the Centre for Spatial Sociology (since 2013);
-Lecturer (Assistant professor) at the FSS (UL), Department for Policy Analyses and public administration (since 2012) (works (had worked) as teaching assistant at undergraduate courses "Local self-government", "Civil servants system", "Comparative federalism and regionalism", "Politics of bureaucracy", "Political science and law", "Theories of leadership" and »Politics of Human Rights«; at the Faculty for Civil and Geodetic Engineering (pre-graduate course “Law and legislation”); at the FSS (UL) (post-graduate courses: »Administrative and political management« and “Administrative culture”);
Research, leadership and organisational skills and experience
-As a researcher cooperated at nine Targeted Research Project (TRP; co-financed by ARRS) on the field of public administration and political science (among them most relevant for proposed project: “The administrative capacity and coalition building in Slovenian municipalities” (project duration from 2006 to 2008) and “Coalition building and relations between executive and legislative municipal branch” (project duration from 2008 to 2010); in charge of field research, SPSS matrix and data input, data analyses, research tool development, desk study, final reports, organising workshops and working meetings, editing three monographs);
-Co-developed an Administrative capacity index (within the framework of project “The administrative capacity and coalition building in Slovenian municipalities”, that is used in OECD (2011) studies as an analytical tool;
-Cooperated with visiting professor dr. Kenneth Ka-Lok Chan (Baptist University Hong Kong) on the project Electoral system in Slovenia and elections in European Parliament (2004–2005); with visiting professor dr. Lars Johannsen on the research on Slovene party system, trust in political institutions (2006–2007); and with dr. Radoslaw Zubek on the project ‘Central European Observatory: Executive Governance and Patterns of Economic Legislation in Central Europe’ (The project was awarded to the LSE European Institute) (2008–2009);
- External Researcher at the Faculty for Architecture, project ATRIUM (EU project; consortium leader organisation Municipality of Forli, Italy); in charge of preparing guidelines for stakeholders and shareholders inclusion into policy making; final elaborate and study (2010–2013);
-Coordinator of the ESF (European Social Fund) project »Successful inclusion of Roma in educational system II« at the FSS; in charge of overall scientific and administrative work coordination (reporting to reviewers, organising group workload, partial and final report writing, financial reports preparing) (2011–2013);
-Researcher at »Administrative capacity of Slovenian municipal administrations« project financed by Friedich Ebert Stiftung (in charge of testing Administrative capacity index in Slovenian municipalities, analysing data, preparing elaborate, disseminating results at the conference) (in 2012);
-Researcher at »Local governance: Improving local democracy in Slovenia” project financed by Friedich Ebert Stiftung (since 2013);
-member of COST action »Local Public Sector Reforms: An International Comparison«, aiming at constructing meta database on local self-government territorial and managerial reforms in all EU member states.
Activities and memberships in working bodies and committees
- Member of Academic Committee of Joint European Master in Comparative Local Development – CoDe as a University of Ljubljana representative (since 2012);
- Active member of the largest professional national association Slovenian political science organization (since 2004); member of the secretariat of Slovenian political science organization (2007-2009) and General secretary of the Slovenian political science organization (2009-2011); in charge of annual Slovenian political science conference organisation and co-operation with other international societies IPSA, APSA, CEPSA;
- Assistant Editor of Journal of Comparative Politics (2009–2011);
- Member of Editorial board of Journal of Comparative Politics (2011-2013);
- Member of EURA (European urban research association) (since 2012);
-in 2005 awarded with European Commission Scholarship for summer school titled Urban Governance in Sweden;
-Mentor to 12 graduate and one post-graduate candidates at UL and one post-graduate candidate at joint European Master in Human rights and democracy (E.MA) (at EIUC: European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation)
Cooperation with economic sector
- External researcher at research group DATA (firm was awarded with European Enterprise Award and European Business Award), in charge of survey on Administrative burdens in private sector (analyses of users opinion on administrative burdens, mapping administrative burdens, categorising administrative burdens, preparing proposals for policy-makers) (since 2013);
- External expert for Moody’s analytics (reporting on political stability in Slovenia);
Activities for promoting science
- Organised international workshop Urban management for an Urban future, financed by ASEF (Asia-Europe Foundation) (in 2010); attended by most profound scholars from EU and Asia;
-Active participant (paper-giver) at more than 20 scientific conferences (national and international) (e.g. »13th NISPAcee Annual Conference«, 2005 Moscow; School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland, 2008 Brisbane and »27th International Congress of Administrative Sciences« 2007 Abu Dhabi);
-Author of two monographs (Urbani menedžment: koncept, dimenzije in orodja. 2010. Fakulteta za družbene vede, Ljubljana; A reconceptualisation of urban management: the administration of cities, their services, and their growth. 2014. The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY);
-Co-author of five monographs (predominantly from public administration, local self-government, local management field)
-(Co)author of 21 scientific articles, of which 7 included in SSCI base; and has 5 citations in Scopus and 1 in WoS.