Ralitsa Zhekova holds a PhD in Political Science. From 1999 till 2016 she has been working with Black Sea NGO Network – a regional association of NGOs from all Black Sea countries dealing with sustainable development issues. She is an Executive Director of the Regional Agency for Entreprenuership and Innovations – Varna since Feb, 2017.

She has academic experience as a university professor for more than 25 years working in Bulgarian and foreign universities. She led more than 15 national and international projects under different programmes: FP6, FP7, INTERREG EUROPE, DTP, JOP Black Sea Basin 2007-2013, EEA Financial Mechanism, LLP, Erasmus+, etc.

She is an author of 17 scientific publications.