Academic and economist Justina Shiroka-Pula has been elected President of the Republic of Kosovo, becoming the country’s third woman to hold the presidency since independence.
Shiroka-Pula, who most recently led the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo (ASHAK), brings decades of academic, public and political experience to the position.
Born in Prishtina in 1953, she completed her primary and secondary education in the city before graduating from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Prishtina in 1976.
She continued her postgraduate studies in the field of Economic Development Theory and Policy at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, graduating in 1984. According to her biography published by ASHAK, she later completed her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Prishtina with a dissertation titled “Demographic Investments and the Economic Development of Kosovo.”
Shiroka-Pula began her academic career at the University of Prishtina’s Faculty of Economics in 1978, initially working as an assistant in Operations Research. She subsequently advanced through the academic ranks and was appointed full professor in 2004.
During her university career, she also served as head of the Department of Management and Informatics, a member of the University of Prishtina Senate and a member of the university’s Governing Board.
Her academic career also included postdoctoral studies and professional training abroad, including at the University of Linz in Austria and the University of Arizona in the United States.
Shiroka-Pula has also held senior positions in Kosovo’s public institutions and political life. From 2008 to 2011, she served as Minister of Energy and Mining in the Kosovo government.
Between 2011 and 2014, she served as a member of the Kosovo Assembly representing the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK).
Before being elected president, Shiroka-Pula headed the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo.
Her election to the presidency marks a return to Kosovo’s highest constitutional office for a figure with a background spanning academia, public administration and politics.
