Professor Ana Štambuk was born on 10 July 1967 in Bisko, Croatia. She finished high school, (Education Centre for Languages), in Zagreb.

In 1988, she graduated from a four-year s+Study of Religious Pedagogy and Catechetical Ministry at the Catechetical Institute of the Catholic Theological Faculty in Zagreb.

In 1990, she started studying social work at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, and graduated in 1994. During her studies she participated in two projects: 1991/1992 – “Action Approach to Help Families in Community Development”, where she worked with children of elementary-school age who have learning disabilities; 1992/93 – “Psychological Assistance to Displaced Persons” – working with refugee children who have learning and behavioural difficulties. During the fourth year of her studies, she volunteered as a student assistant in conducting workshops within the course “Social Work with Families.”

As a student, she received two awards: 1991/1992 as the best student of her generation, and 1993/1994 as the best graduate social worker.

After graduation, she started postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Social Psychiatry.

In 1999, she defended her master’s thesis entitled: “The Association of Sociodemographic and Psychological Characteristics in Adapting to Life in a Retirement Home” at the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb, and was elected to the assistant rank.

She defended her doctoral dissertation entitled: “The Attitudes of Elder People to Death and Dying” at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb in 2004.

In 2009, she was elected to the rank of assistant professor, and in 2011, she was appointed to the position of the head of the Social Gerontology Department.

She was elected to the rank of associate professor in 2013.

Since 1995, she has been employed at the Study Centre for Social Work, University of Zagreb, at the Department of Social Gerontology, where, within the eponymous course, she is responsible for seminar lectures and field work. After obtaining authorization, she started examining. Since 2003, she has been lecturing, running seminars, workshops and organizing field work. Since 2011, she has been teaching the course Selected Areas – the Elderly at graduate level, and since 2012, the elective course Palliative Care. As part of the Postgraduate study in the Theory and Methodology of Social Work, she prepared two elective courses: Selected Topics in Social Gerontology and Palliative Care for the Elderly.

She has mentored more than 60 theses.

She participated in 13 international and 2 domestic conferences and has published 20 scientific papers.

Her professional activities are as follows:

  • 2006-2008 Participation in an international project Long-Term Care in Central and South Eastern Europe, Institute for Social Policy, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, Austria.
  • 2012-2014 Co-leader of the project Caregivers of Elderly Persons in Families in the Area of Zagreb, financed by the City Office for Social Protection and People with Disabilities in Zagreb.
  • Since 1999, she has been involved in reality therapy education, and in 2003, she earned the certificate.
  • in 2001, she completed a one-month professional training in palliative care at Hospice Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA.
  • she completed the training in Active Learning and Critical Thinking, Zagreb, 2011- 2013.
  • she participated in the summer school: Social Work in the Community, Zagreb, 1-6 July 2012.
  • As an invited lecturer, she gave lectures at the postgraduate course of continuing medical education of the first category: Treatment of Pain in Children – Palliative Care, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
  • Since 2013, a co-leader of the IUC course in Dubrovnik: Contemporary Issues in Social Work: Working with Old Age.
  • Invited lecturer at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work – 12 March 2013. Topic of presentation: Introduction to Palliative Careand Communication in Palliative Care.

From 2002 to 2014, she actively participated as a volunteer (lecturer and organizer) in a number of courses for volunteers in palliative care, one terminal palliative care course for physicians in primary health care / family medicine and one palliative care course for employees of homes for the elderly and disabled and homes for mentally ill persons.

2003-2004 Head of the Croatian Association of Hospice Friends.

2002-2004 Member of the Commission for Palliative Care of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

2011 Member of the working group for drafting the national programme of strategic development of intergenerational solidarity services for the elderly at the Ministry of Family, Veterans and Intergenerational Solidarity.

Since 1999, she has been a member of the Croatian Association of Social Workers and the Croatian Association for Hospice and Palliative Care, and since 2014, a member of the Croatian Chamber of social workers.

She is fluent in English language.

She is married and a mother of three children.