Prof. Sanja Musić Milanović, Ph.D., M.D., is a physician, specialist in epidemiology, scientist, and university professor, born in 1969 in Zagreb.
She has dedicated her entire scientific and professional career to the preservation and improvement of health. After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb, she obtained a master’s degree in Public Health Methodology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Faculté de Médecine, Ecole de Santé Publique. She completed her Ph.D. at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb, with a dissertation titled “Demographic, Behavioural, and Socioeconomic Determinants of Adult Obesity in Croatia.”
Her areas of scientific interest include the epidemiology of non-communicable diseases, particularly obesity, and health promotion. She is a professor at the Department of Medical Statistics, Epidemiology, and Medical Informatics at the School of Public Health “Andrija Štampar,” Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb.
She is the Head of the Division for Health Promotion at the Croatian Institute of Public Health, the Reference Centre of the Ministry of Health for Health Promotion, and leads the National Health Promotion Programme “Healthy Living.”
She is the principal investigator for a large cross-sectional study by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe), Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative, Croatia (CroCOSI), and participates in many other research and professional projects. She is a member of the Advisory Council on Innovation for Non-communicable Diseases of the WHO Regional Director for Europe and the Childhood Obesity Signature Initiative.
Additionally, Prof. Musić Milanović is the national focal point for several health promotion topics, including the WHO and European Commission Physical Activity Focal Points Network, and the Expert Group „Health Enhancing Physical Activity”. She is the WHO National Technical Focal Point for Promoting health throughout the life-course as well as the WHO Focal Point for Obesity and Nutrition.
As a representative of the European Parliament, she is a member of the Management Board of the European Food Safety Authority. She is also a member of the Scientific Council for Anthropological Research at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Management Board of the Croatian Society of Obesity.
For her long-standing advocacy and work in the field of health promotion, in 2022, she received a special recognition from the Director-General of the World Health Organization, being named the “Health Champion of 2022.” She is the author of numerous scientific papers and chapters in books/textbooks on obesity and health promotion.
She is the mother of two sons, Ante Jakov and Marko, and the spouse of the President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović.
