Slavica Blažeka Kokorić, née Blažeka, was born in 1974 in Čakovec, the Republic of Croatia. She completed her secondary school education at the Čakovec Grammar School, and university education at the Social Work Study Centre of the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb. During her university education, she received three awards for outstanding results achieved in her studies. She graduated in 1997 with a distinction and obtained the professional title of graduate social worker. In 2002, she completed a postgraduate study programme of sociology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb, and obtained the academic degree of a Master of Science in the scientific area of social sciences, field of sociology. In 2005, she defended her doctoral dissertation entitled “The Connection Between Experiences in Family of Origin and Romantic Relationship Features“ at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, and obtained the academic degree of Doctor of Science in the area of social sciences, the scientific field of social work.

From 1998 until today, she has been continuously employed at the Social Work Study Centre of the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, at the Department of Social Work Spheres. Currently, her status is that of a permanent full-time professor, and she participates in teaching within the framework of a large number of courses in the undergraduate and graduate study programmes in social work, as well as in the postgraduate study programme of Family Mediation, the postgraduate study programme of Psychosocial Approach in Social Work, and the Doctoral Study Programme of Social Work and Social Policy.

In the academic year 2016/17, she was the Chair of the Department of Social Work Areas, and in the period from academic year 2019/20 to 2023/24, she held the position of Chair of the Institute of Social Work at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. From 2006 to 2009, she was a member of the Council of Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Zagreb Senate. From 2006 to 2014, she was a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Ljetopis socijalnog rada (Annual of Social Work).

From 2009 to 2014, she managed the scientific research project of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports „Functioning and Empowerment of Families under Risk in the Republic of Croatia“. She participated as a researcher in nine projects. By early 2023, she had written a total of 54 papers, of which 34 were published in scientific journals, 11 in conference proceedings, and 8 as chapters in books. She also edited one editorial book. She participated in 33 scientific conferences and 22 professional meetings, with a total of 62 presentations. The area of her scientific research interest is the study of various challenges faced by families in modern society and the ways in which these may be successfully overcome. In published professional and scientific papers, she devotes special interest to research on the determinants of the quality of family relationships, family conflicts, features of young people’s romantic relationships, the influence of the family on the developmental outcomes of children, the influence of new information and communication technologies on family life, the harmonisation of work and family roles, the role of spirituality as a resource for family resilience, provision of support to foster families, etc.

From 2015 to 2019, she was a member of the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. From 2018 to 2021, she was a member of the Children’s Council of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, and since 2019, she has been a member of the National Ethics Committee for Research with Children. She actively participates in the work of several non-governmental associations. From 2016 until today, she has held the position of President of the Family Section of the Croatian Association of Social Workers. She is a professional associate at the association Na drugi način. She is a member of the Croatian Centre for Drama Education and the Croatian Family Mediation Association. She is professionally involved in the organisation and implementation of numerous professional projects, training, round tables and professional meetings. She completed many years of training and numerous courses in the field of psychotherapy, psychosocial approach in working with various groups of beneficiaries and contemporary drama-based pedagogy, as well as methods of active learning and critical teaching in higher education.

She is registered in the Register of Scientists kept by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia under identification number 252195 (CROSBI profile: https://www.bib.irb.hr/pregled/profil/22253; Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sre1FlEAAAAJ&hl=hr).