After completing her studies, obtaining a master's degree in engineering in 2005 and a PhD in 2009 from University of Zagreb, she continued her academic career as Head of the Department of Intermodal Transport (2010-2017). She was appointed Associate Professor in 2016 and Full Professor in 2022. She has authored several scientific textbooks and participated in numerous international research projects, contributing significantly to the development of transport sciences in Croatia and Europe.
Her political career began in 2017 when she was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure. In 2020, during Croatia's presidency of the EU Council, she served as ministre déléguée at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, representing the Council's positions in the European Parliament. As Minister of Tourism and Sports in the Government of the Republic of Croatia (2020-2024), she initiated reforms that laid the foundations for sustainable tourism and modernization of sports infrastructure.
In 2024, she was elected as a representative in the Croatian Parliament, and shortly afterwards as a Member of the European Parliament, joining the largest political group - the European People's Party (EPP). In the European Parliament, she actively participates in the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN), Regional Development (REGI), and the Special Committee on the Housing Crisis in the European Union (HOUS), as well as in the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (DMED), the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries (DMAS), and the Delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly (D-UK).
At the beginning of her mandate in Parliament, she took on several significant responsibilities - serving as the EPP's representative in the Tourism Task Force, where she advocates for sustainable EU tourism development, as well as being appointed as the EPP Coordinator of the Special Committee on Housing Crises in the EU. In addition, she is a shadow rapporteur for the revision of Package Travel Directive and for the Report on the role of cohesion policy investments in addressing the housing crisis.