Bio

After philosophy and theology studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (Lithuania), Elena Šiaudvytienė earned her Bachelor’s and Licentiate degrees in Social Sciences from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, Italy. The role of the third sector in creating new jobs in Europe was the focus of her Licentiate thesis research. In 2008 Elena Šiaudvytienė completed a Master’s degree in European Studies from the Institute of International Relations and Political Science (IIRPS) at Vilnius University (Lithuania). In her Master's thesis research, she compared the concepts of subsidiarity in Catholic Social Teaching and the EU law. Elena Šiaudvytienė is currently an external Ph.D. student at the IIRPS. In 2021 she started another Ph.D. program in Social Sciences at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). In addition, she participates in CREATE (Catholic social teaching Rome Exchange: Advanced Training Experience) Initiative and is a Laudato Si’ Scholarship holder. Elena Šiaudvytienė has been appointed as the Economy of Francesco Academy Research fellow for 2023/2024. She is conducting evaluation research of Lithuania’s just transition policy framework from the perspective of Catholic Integral Ecology. In October 2023 Elena Šiaudvytienė has been officially selected by the European Commission (DG REGIO) as a JTPeers Expert to be included into the digital expert database provided under the Just Transition Platform that catalogues and showcases the profiles and expertise of professionals in the just transition field across the EU.