Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is the 4th and 1st female President of Croatia (2015-2020) with broad national and international experience in politics, diplomacy, and security studies. During her career as an elected official and in national and international civil service, among others, she was elected a Member of the Croatian Parliament (2003), and served as Croatia’s first female Minister of Foreign Affairs (2003-2008) and Ambassador to the United States, Mexico, Panama and the Organisation of American States (2008-2011), as well as the first female Assistant Secretary General and member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Senior Leadership (2011-2014). She was elected an independent member of the International Olympic Committee in 2020, and was appointed Chair of the Future Hosts Commission for the Games of the Olympiad in 2021. Currently, she is a Special Advisor to the Dean of the Zagreb School of Economics and Management and serves on the boards of a number of not-for-profit institutions, such as Friends of Europe, the US Atlantic Council, GLOBSEC, Halifax International Security Forum, the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. She is a Member of the High-Level Advisory Council for the High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), the Global Ambassador for Immunization for Women Political Leaders (WPL), and chair emerita of the Council of Women World Leaders. Parallel to her diplomatic and political careers, she has pursued an academic career in government, international relations, and security studies at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy (1994-1995), the George Washington University (2002-2003), Harvard University (2009), the Johns Hopkins University (2011), and the University of Zagreb. She holds a Master’s degree and is currently writing a Ph.D. thesis in the field of International Relations and Security Studies on the Responsibility to Protect. She is a recipient of the 2019 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement award for her “remarkable contributions as a leader, diplomat, and public servant”, the George Washington University President’s Medal, and a number of other national and international awards, decorations, recognitions, honorary doctorates, and honorary citizenships.