ODETA BARBULLUSHI Odeta Barbullushi is a foreign policy expert, academic and former diplomat, who served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chief of Cabinet to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2019. Before joining the College of Europe, Dr Barbullushi held the position of Advisor to the Albanian Prime Minister on EU integration and Regional Cooperation and that of Sherpa to the Prime Minister. In that capacity, she was responsible for the preparation of regional and EU-Western Balkans Summits. Prior to her decade-long work in government, Dr. Barbullushi was a full time Lecturer and Vice Rector for Research at the European University of Tirana. She earned her PhD in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Dr Barbullushi’s expertise includes EU accession processes and enlargement policy, EU Foreign and Security Policy, regionalism and regional cooperation in the Western Balkans, and social-political transformation of Southeast Europe.