Dr Usheva graduated medicine at the Medical University "Prof. Dr. P. Stoyanov" Varna in 2000. In 2001 she became a full-time PhD student at the Department of Social Medicine, Health Care Organization and Biostatistics. In 2003, after its defence, she was appointed Assistant Professor and progressed through the positions of Senior (2007), Senior Assistant Professor (2012), and in 2015 she was elected Associate Professor in the same Department. In 2004, she earned a degree in social medicine and health management. After defending her dissertation on "Successful Breastfeeding and Feeding of Children - Current Trends, Problems and Opportunities for Their Solution" in 2013 she obtained the educational and scientific degree "Doctor". She holds the position of Head of the Department of Social Medicine and Health Organization since May 2019 and Deputy Dean for Research of the Faculty of Public Health since June 2020.
Dr Usheva has participated in short-term courses for qualification improvement in Bulgaria and abroad, both in the field of research and teaching: "Methods for problem-based learning" (2002); specialist training at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom in teaching methods for Masters in Public Health (2002); summer Seminar on "Training and Research Programmes in Public Health"(2003) - Budva, Montenegro; she carried out on-site specializations within the framework of the ASPHER and Open Society Project "Quality Development in Public Health Programmes in Central and Eastern Europe" (2002-2004); "Breastfeeding and Healthy Feeding of Pregnant Women" CME course for trainers at the NCHS with the support of WHO (2005); "Health Information Systems in Europe"-MANAHEALTH; "Statistical methods for data processing with Statistics software". In 2010 she completed a course for voluntary breastfeeding consultant at the National Association "Support for breastfeeding".
Dr Usheva is involved in 12 research projects, three of which are related to the development of new training programmes. "Quality Development in Public Health Programmes in Central and Eastern Europe" (2002-2004) - a project of ASPHER and Open Society; "Green Light for Breastfeeding" (2009) and "Youth Nutrition in Varna" (2012)-by the Municipality of Varna. The other projects are mainly of a research nature: 'Salt and Health' - supported by Open Society (2003); "ToyBox (2010-2014) under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission; "Innovative and ergonomic evaluation of the learning environment and its impact on the effectiveness of the learning process and human physiology in the learning process"-TU-Varna FNI at the Ministry of Education and Science, Young Scientists Programme (2012); "NuTransAge" (2020g. ) "Feel4Diabetes - Developing and implementing a community-based intervention to create a more supportive social and physical environment or life changes to prevent diabetes in vulnerable families across Europe" (2015-2019); "DigiCare4You - An inter-sectoral innovative solution involving DIGItal tools, empowering families and integrating community CARE services for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes and hypertension (2020-2024) under the EU's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation".
She participates in teaching the following disciplines: social medicine, medical statistics, public dental health to students of the specialties - "medicine", "dentistry", "nurse", "health care management", both in Bulgarian and English. She is a lecturer in the course for the CDE "Contemporary recommendations for breastfeeding".
Research supervisor and reviewer of graduate students in the master's programs in public health, public health protection and control, health management, and health care management.
Scientific supervisor of PhD students enrolled in the scientific specialty "Social Medicine and Organization of Health Care and Pharmacy", "Public Health Management".
For active participation in the successfully completed and highly appreciated project under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission "ToyBox" she was awarded with the Academic Award of MU-Varna "Honorary Sign with Blue Ribbon" (2014); for scientific achievements in the field of public health was awarded the Prize in the name of Prof. M. Popov (2014).
