Justina Shiroka-Pula, with professional and family ties to Albanians in North Macedonia

Academician Justina Shiroka-Pula has been elected president of Kosovo. Before this appointment, she headed the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo (ASHAK).

According to her biography published on the ASHAK website, Shiroka-Pula was born in Pristina in 1953. She completed primary school there in 1968 and secondary school in 1972. In 1976, she successfully graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Pristina. She then pursued postgraduate studies in the Theory and Policy of Economic Development at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, graduating in 1984. The biography also notes that she earned her doctorate from the Faculty of Economics in Pristina in 1977, with a dissertation titled “Demographic Investments and Kosovo’s Economic Development.”

After completing her studies, she worked for a short period at the People’s Bank of Kosovo. In 1978, she began her academic career at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Pristina, as an assistant in the subject “Operational Research.” She advanced through all academic ranks and was appointed full professor in 2004. During her university career, she served as head of the Department of Management and Informatics, a member of the University of Pristina Senate and a member of its Governing Board. She pursued postdoctoral studies and training outside Kosovo, including at the University of Linz in Austria and the University of Arizona in the United States.

In addition to her academic activities, Shiroka-Pula has also held senior government positions. She was Kosovo’s Minister of Energy and Mining from 2008 to 2011, while from 2011 to 2014 she represented the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) as a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo.

The president has numerous ties to Albanians in North Macedonia, the Lideri.mk portal reports. These include professional relationships with university professors at several universities in North Macedonia, as well as family ties: Shiroka-Pula’s son’s wife is from Prespa.

Her network of connections also includes numerous friendships with colleagues in her field, as well as with people outside economics, the discipline in which she has built her professional career./Lideri