Prof. Dr. Albena Kerekovska, PhD was born on 13 January 1965 in Varna. She graduated with honours from First Language High School with English and German language teaching in Varna, and the Faculty of Medicine at the Medical University of Varna in 1990.
From 1990 to 1992 she worked as a resident physician in the Internal Medicine Department at the Regional Hospital - Balchik, and from 1992 to 1995 - as a resident doctor in the Department of Occupational Hygiene at the Hygiene and Epidemiology Inspectorate - Varna.
In 1995 she became a full-time Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Medicine, Biostatistics and Medical Informatics at MU - Varna.
She acquired the speciality of Social Medicine and Health Management in 1998.
Between 2000 and 2004 she was a part-time PhD student at the University of Glamorgan, UK (now the University of South Wales, where in 2004 she defended a dissertation thesis on International Policy of Health Promotion and Tobacco Control - Improvement of the Process of Transcultural Transfer.
She was elected a full-time Associate Professor at the Department of Social Medicine and Healthcare Organisation in 2007, and a Professor at the same Department in 2015.
From 2012 to 2020 she has been a Vice Rector for Educational Affairs at Medical University–Varna. Within the period of 2020 – 2024 she has become a Director of the Educational Affaires Directorate, and since March 2024 she has taken again the position of Vice-Rector for Educational Affaires at MU – Varna.
From 2008 to 2012 she was Chairperson of the Research Ethics Committee at MU–Varna, and currently - its regular member.
Within 2006-2015 she was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Glamorgan, the UK (the University of South Wales).
She has been a guest lecturer at the School of Public Health in Rennes (France); at the University of Glamorgan (Great Britain), and at the Aegean University in Izmir (Turkey).
She has been a graduate research supervisor for five PhD students, who successfully defended their dissertation theses. She has long-term intensive practice as an academic teacher to students from different specialties in the field of Public Health and Medical Ethics.
She has specialized in the field of Public Health, Modern Epidemiology, Health Policy and Medical Ethics at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland); the Institute of Public Health at the University of Cambridge (the UK); the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Maastricht University (the Netherlands), as well as in Salzburg (Austria); Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Prague (the Czech Republic).
She has participated in 20 long-term projects, predominantly international ones, being the head of four of them.
In 2021 prof. Kerekovska and the whole team of the Educational Affaires Directorate were awarded with an Honorary Badge with a Blue Ribbon - a collective academic award of the Medical University of Varna for outstanding achievements.
She has more than 150 scientific publications and scientific reports, and more than 50 of them have been published abroad. Author and co-author of 13 monographs, textbooks and teaching aids. Her main research areas and developments lie in the field of Health Policy; Health Promotion; Research and Publication Ethics; Public Health Assessment and Determinants of Health; Health Inequalities.
Member of the editorial boards of the journals of MU – Varna “Scripta Scientifica Medica", „Scripta Scientifica Salutis Publicae" and Varna Medical Forum.
Scientific Publications
Open Access
European Public Health Association (EUPHA); Bulgarian Association of Health Management; Scientific Society for Social Medicine; Union of Scientists in Bulgaria; Association Public Health'99–Varna; Bulgarian Medical Association (Union of Bulgarian Physicians).
Expert on Bioethics at UNESCO.
