After studying in Budapest, Hungary, for two years, Anja received her veterinary degree in 2014 from the Free University of Berlin, Germany. As a veterinary student, she was a veterinary extern at ‘The Marine Mammal Center’ (California) and the ‘New England Aquarium’ (Massachusetts); went to Costa Rica, Kenya and Tanzania for wildlife summer schools and voluntary conservation training; worked with the NGO ‘Whale and Dolphin Conservation’ and gained wildlife management and rehabilitation skills at the ‘Cape Wildlife Center’, the ‘New England Wildlife Center’ and the ‘National Marine Life Center’ in Massachusetts. Between 2015-2020 she worked as research assistant at the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation. In this role, her work focused on post mortem investigations, health monitoring of and anthropogenic influences on the local marine mammal populations (harbour porpoises, harbour & grey seals) and other wildlife, as well as the EU funded project “Marine Mammals – Science Education”, making scientific careers attractive for young people and teaching marine mammal sciences. She was the first ECZM Resident at the ITAW, successfully completed her residency in 2019 and earned her EVBS® Specialist status by board examination in 2020. Additionally, she is a registered German ‘expert veterinarian for wildlife’ (Fachtierarzt), and finished her Ph.D. on the development of minimally invasive diagnostic methods for harbour porpoise health status monitoring in the fall of 2021. Currently she is Co-Chair of the ECZM Education and Residency Committee, in charge of Residency programmes and works with the inland fisheries of Lower-Saxony.