Prof. Todorka Kostadinova was born on 20th October 1960 in Dobrich, where she graduated from "Geo Milev"Language High School, German and English Language Teaching. She has two Master's degrees from the University of Economics - Varna (Economics and Pedagogics) and PhD from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia (2001). Title of her dissertation thesis: "Opportunities for Portfolio Management of Medical Institutions".
Her academic career has been developing further by successive appointments as an Extraordinary Associate Professor at the Department of Economics and Health Care Management at MU- Varna (2002), Associate Professor at the same Department (2003) and Professor - in 2012 in the scientific specialty "Organization and Management outside the Sphere of Material Production". She has two specialties in the field of Health Care: "Health Economics" (2005) and "Medical Informatics and Health Management" (2006).
She delivered lectures as a guest lecturer in a Master's Programme in Health Management at the University in Bern, Switzerland (2005 - 2006) and Medical University - Vienna (2009-2011). From 2008 to 2011 she was a member of an international research team of Berkeley University, after specialization in Leadership in Health Care at the same University (Global Health Leadership Forum at Berkeley,
www.ghlf.org)
She has specialized in the following areas: Hospital Management at the University Hospitals in Zurich and Bern, Switzerland, Restructuring and Organization of University Education in Health Management at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands and the University of Manchester, the UK; Health Policy, Financing and Management in Healthcare at George Washington University and George town University, the USA (2003-2004). After her specialization she was elected member of the academic staff of the Department of Global Health at the University of George Washington (2004-2009).
Within the period 2009 - 2013 Prof. Kostadinova combines academic work with management positions at various levels as a parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Health (2009), Deputy Minister of Health (2009 - 2010), a member of the Control Board (2009) and Supervisory Board (2010) of the National Health insurance Fund (NHIF), Sofia, a coordinator for Bulgaria of the International Network for Health in South-Eastern Europe (2009-2010), a member of the National Commissions and Committees on European Politics – at the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Bulgaria, on ethnic issues – at the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Chairman of the National Council on Food Safety at the Ministry of Health (2009-2010), Deputy Minister for International Cooperation, Public Health, including work with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, European programmes and projects, Electronic Healthcare.
In March 2011, she was elected Dean of the Faculty of Public Health at MU - Varna and remained on this position for a year, and since March 2012 she has been a Vice Rector for International Cooperation, Accreditation and Quality.