Anja Kopač Mrak

Anja Kopač Mrak was born on 4 April 1974 in Kranj, where she completed high school. She graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Sociology – human resources management. She spent part of her studies at post-graduate level at the University of Bath, in England, attending an international course entitled “Analysis of European Social Policy”. In 2004 she received her PhD in the field of social policy, where she dealt with issues related to the reform of the welfare state.
As of 1998, she has been employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences, first as a young researcher, and later as a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Organisations and Human Resources. She has participated in numerous domestic and international projects in the fields of social policy, employment policy, and management of human resources, as well as serving as head of an international research team. She has been a member of international research networks (COST A13, RECWOWE), and was a national EU expert on pensions prior to becoming State Secretary in December 2008. She has performed numerous evaluations of national social policies and employment policies in the field of European social policy, mostly concerning the employment of the unemployed, balancing professional and family responsibilities, and lifelong learning.
She is an assistant professor of sociology and a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences. She teaches Sociology of Social Policy, European Social Policy and takes part in the course on Labour and Social Law. She is the author of several scientific works in the field of social and employment policy, including a book entitled “Activation – turn in social policy”.
Between 2008 and 2012, she served as State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs. In the last years, she served as the Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. In this period, she and her colleagues successfully managed numerous projects in the field of the legal security of workers, social security, employment and equal opportunities.
She is a mother of two children and lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia.