Vesna Svalina, Ph.D. (1968) is an associate professor in the field of music education and president of the Music Subdepartment at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek. Since 2020, she has also been working at the University of Slavonski Brod at the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities. She graduated from the study program of music pedagogy of the University of Osijek (Faculty of Education) in 1991. She holds a Master of Music Education degree from the University of Zagreb (Music Academy, 2009) and a doctoral degree in early education and compulsory education from the Faculty of Teacher Education of the University of Zagreb (2013). She is the author of thirty one scientific papers and one book. Her scientific interest is focused on the music education curriculum, competencies for teaching at the primary level of education, musical creativity, extracurricular music activities, and education of gifted children. She participated in numerous international scientific conferences at home and abroad. From 2015 to 2016 she was head of the scientific research project Listening to music as an important subject area in the primary music curriculum. From 2009 to 2013 she was involved in the project Development of Creativity in Lifelong Teacher Education, and from 2018 to 2021 in the project Giftedness in the Artistic Field - Analysis of the Situation Among Primary School Pupils in Terms of Artistic and Musical Giftedness. From 2015 to 2018 she was managing editor of the journal Life and School. In September 2021, she became a member of the editorial board of the journal SN Social Sciences and International Journal of Psychological and Brain Sciences. She has also given numerous concerts with the choirs, both in Croatia and abroad (Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland). She won numerous first prizes, both nationally and internationally, at different choir competitions (11 first prizes at national and 7 at international competitions). She also won three special prizes: for the best performance of the compulsory song, for the best interpretation of the song composed by a Croatian composer, and for the artistically most convincing conductor.