Professor Olja Družić Ljubotina was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1970. She graduated from the Faculty of Law, Department of Social Work, University of Zagreb in 1996.  She obtained a master’s degree at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb in 2004 and a doctoral degree at the Faculty of Law, Department of Social Work, University of Zagreb having defended the thesis “Attribution of causes of poverty and some psychosocial characteristics of social assistance recipients“ in 2009. In 2017 she was elected to the academic title of an associate professor in the field of social sciences.

In October 2000 she was employed at the Department of Social Work of the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb as an assistant.  She participated in several scientific research projects financed by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport: „Social Policy and Social Work in Croatia” (2000-2004) headed by Professor Emeritus Vlado Puljiz, „Models of Action and Evaluation Research in Social Work” (2004-2006) headed by Professor Marina Ajduković and “Children, youth, family and social development of Croatia” (2006-2012). From 2012 she was a member of the research team at the UNICEF project: Poverty and material welfare of pre-school children in the Republic of Croatia. She holds two courses in the undergraduate study, Social group work and Poverty and social work. She is one of the holders of the course Social problems and risks in the postgraduate doctoral study in social work and social policy, and the holder of the course Poverty and children in the specialist study Rights of children at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb.

She participated as a member of expert teams in various work groups for drafting several laws and documents in the field of social policy and social work activities.

Her research areas include poverty and social exclusion and social group work.

She is a member of the Croatian Chamber of Social Workers, the Croatian Association of Social Workers, the Society for Psychological Assistance, Volunteers’ Center Zagreb and Rehabilitation Center for Stress and Trauma.