Mara Šimunović, PhD
Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar (Croatia)

Mara Šimunović received a master's degree in psychology from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb in 2014. She completed her internship at the Department of Education of the Public Open University in Zagreb. She enrolled in the Doctoral Degree Program in Psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb in 2017 and received her PhD in 2020. Since 2016, she has been employed as a research assistant, and since 2021 as a postdoctoral researcher at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences in Zagreb.

She was elected to the position of assistant lecturer at the Department of Health Psychology at the University of Applied Health Sciences in Zagreb in 2019. There, she teaches several courses such as Methods of Data Collection and Analysis, Health Psychology, and Communication Skills.

As a researcher, she has participated in five research projects, of which three are longitudinal research projects financed by the Croatian Science Foundation. She has also been an associate on several developmental projects financed from EU funds and programs. Since 2017, she has been continuously participating in courses in research methods in social sciences and advanced statistical analysis.

In addition to scientific work, she collaborates with “Centar Misli” in Zagreb in providing psychological counselling and psychoeducation. She is currently pursuing postgraduate professional training in cognitive-behavioural therapies at the Croatian Association for Behavioral-Cognitive Therapies (HUBIKOT).

She received a Scholarship from the City of Zagreb for excellent PhD students. She received acknowledgement from the foundation ˝EVERYTHING for HER!˝ for promoting the importance of psychological care for women affected with breast cancer through her diploma thesis.

She is a member of the Croatian Psychological Chamber and the Croatian Association for Behavioral-Cognitive Therapies.

A full list of her publications can be found here.