Alenka Oven, PhD, director

She holds a bachelor's degree in law and a doctorate in in legal studies in the field of social security law.

Work experience:
She has several years of practical and theoretical experience in the field of social security law, having worked for many years at the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the Republic of Slovenia, where she was a member of various expert working groups.
In order to advance her career and broaden her expertise, she took over the management of the Recovery, Control and Analytics Division of the Public Guarantee, Maintenance and Disability Fund.
She also gained expertise in the field of care for the elderly as director of a private home for the elderly.
In 2014, she founded and has since managed the private Institute for Long-Term Care with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of healthy ageing and preventing dependence on the care provided by others in the future, with a focus on patients' rights.

International certificates:

Caring for older person, A partnership model (Deakin University, Australia)

eHealth: Combining Psychology, Technology and Health (Twente University, Netherland)

Teaching activity:
She was appointed an assistant at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana and gave lectures to undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Faculty of Social Work of the University of Ljubljana from 2011 to 2014.
During her almost 20-year career, she has become an established lecturer who regularly participates in professional trainings in the field of health care and social security, with a focus on long-term care and patients' rights. She is the author of professional articles and publications in the field of health and social care.
From 2016 to 2019, she was a lecturer at the Slovenian Third age University.
Since September 2018, she has been a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Novo mesto in the 2nd cycle study programme in the field of Law (Integrated Health and Social Care – Legislation in Health and Social Care). She is also the lecturer of the Healthcare and Social Care Legislation course in the 1st cycle study programme Nursing Care.

Member of professional associations:
She is a member of the Society for Labour Law and Social Security, the Lawyer's Association of Ljubljana, the Slovenian Association of Palliative and Hospice Care and the European Initiative for Security Studies (EISS). Since 21 April 2021, she has been a member of the Strategic Council on Social Policy of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia.

Author of publications:
- She is the author of the first book „Potrebujem oskrbo, kaj pa sedaj?" (I need care, now what?), which provides answers to the most common legal questions of people in need of care (2019).
- During the global epidemic, she cooperated with the IASC Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (IASC MHPSS Reference Group) and translated two books for children on the topic of dealing with the COVID-19 situation, titled „My hero is you", into Slovenian language (the books were distributed to all Slovenian kindergartens during the epidemic).
- she is the author of the introductory explanatory notes to the first adopted Long Term Care Act in the Republic of Slovenia (The Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia Ltd.., Public Company, 2022).

Institute for Long-term care is member of:

- Nacionalne Mreže NVO s področja javnega zdravja 25X25

- Mreže za kakovostno staranje

- International Long-term care Policy Network (ILPN)
- European Connected Health Alliance (ECHA Alliance)
- Slovenia eSeniors Network: eInclusion in Active Aging
- Interdisciplinary eCollaboration Think Tank Network