Education, Professional Experience and Academic Advancement

Prof. Dr. Maša Malenica completed primary school and the Mathematics-Informatic Education Centre (MIOC) in Zagreb with excellent grades. She graduated from high school with honors in the United States (Blacksburg High School, Virginia).

Due to her academic excellence, she ranked among the top 1% of students in the U.S. and received a Presidential Award from President George Bush. After placing 4th in a national knowledge and general culture competition, she was awarded a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, where she graduated in 1996 in Molecular Biology and Clinical Psychology, earning the summa cum laude distinction (top 1% of students).

During and after her studies, she worked as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She later returned to Croatia, where she graduated from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine as one of the top 10% of her class.

She enrolled in postgraduate studies in Physiology and Immunobiology at the Faculty of Science (1998) and a specialist postgraduate program in Clinical Pediatrics (2006).

She has worked at KBC Sestre milosrdnice since 2005. She also taught Pediatrics for two years at the Secondary Medical School.

Additional qualifications:

• Toxicology course (2002)
• European Pediatric Advanced Life Support course (2007)
• Brain ultrasound course (2012)

In 2009, she obtained her PhD with the thesis: “Polymorphisms of CYP2C9 and 2C19 Genes in Children with Epilepsy.”

Since 2010, she has been a board-certified pediatrician, and since 2013, a senior research associate and assistant professor at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine.

In 2012, she began her subspecialization in Child Neurology and became a senior lecturer at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Teacher Education, where she teaches the course Child Health Protection. The same year, she began teaching at the School of Medicine (Foundations of Clinical Skills) and the Faculty of Law (Children’s Rights postgraduate program).

She became a certified Child Neurology Subspecialist in 2014.

Currently, she serves as:

• Head of the Department of Neuropediatrics, Children’s Hospital, KBC Sestre milosrdnice
• Head of the Pediatric Outpatient Clinic, KBC Sestre milosrdnice
• Head of the EpiCARE Centre, a European Reference Centre for Rare Childhood Epilepsies

Membership in Professional Associations

She is a member of:

• Croatian Medical Chamber
• Croatian Pediatric Society
• Croatian Society for Pediatric Neurology
• Academy for Developmental Rehabilitation
• Croatian Society for Rare Diseases
• Association for Epilepsy
• European Pediatric Neurology Society (EPNS)
• American Epilepsy Society (AES)

Since 2012, she has been a member of the Executive Board of the Croatian League Against Epilepsy, a branch of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE).

She also leads a Counselling Centre for Children with Epilepsy and completed advanced training in epileptology at the Cleveland Epilepsy Center, Ohio, USA.

Scientific Work and Conference Participation

• Peer reviewer for Paediatria Croatica and Acta Clinica Croatica
• Mentor to 20 graduate theses and 1 doctoral dissertation
• Mentor to 4 medical interns
• Actively participates in numerous scientific conferences both nationally and internationally

She is fluent in English, and has working knowledge of German and French.