Mimoza Kusari-Lila
Mimoza Kusari-Lila (born 16 October 1975) is an Albanian Kosovar politician for The Alternative. She has served as the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo and Minister of Trade and Industry from 2011 to 2013 and as the Mayor of Gjakova from November 2013 to 2017. Family. Mimoza Kusari was born 16 October 1975 in Gjakova. Her father is a pulmonologist and her mother is a teacher of Albanian language and literature in elementary school. Her family lived for a short time in Peja. Finally they returned to Gjakova with their four children in  the mid 80s. Education. Kusari finished the high school at the "Hajdar Dushi" Gymnasium, and after that registered in the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Economics. She graduated in the "Management and Informations Systems", working full-time to fund her studies in a time of economic crisis and political repression. In 1998-1999, when the conflict broke out in Kosovo, she worked for organizations as Doctors Without Borders and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). During the Kosovo war, while working in a refugee camp for National Public Radio (U.S. Radio, National Public Radio NPR) in Republic  of Macedonia, she won the prestigious Ron Brown Scholarship from the United States Department of State to pursue a MBA in the United States. During her stay in the United States, she continued studies at the Institute of Economics, University of Colorado, and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she completed her masters in e-business. During this time she was very active in organizing student community and showing leadership skills. She founded and served as first president of the Association of Business Women of Duquesne University and was one of three scholarship holders from Eastern Europe of Ron Brown  invited to participate in the celebration of International Education Week by Secretary of State Madelaine Albright in Washington DC. After her studies, she worked as an intern at Bayer Corporation of North America in Pittsburgh, department of e-sales. After returning to Kosovo in 2001, she worked for the World Bank and USAID project to support Kosovar businesses. Her leadership skills and managerial were tested while she worked as project manager at the American University in Kosovo Foundation education plan for Kosovo and the establishment of the institution. Her work resulted in the successful opening of the American University in  Kosovo, now as a leading institution of education in Kosovo and the region. Political activity. Mimoza Kusari was exposed to politics and public service in 2003 when she was offered the position of spokesperson and political adviser to then Prime Minister of Kosovo Bajram Rexhepi. The first woman to have such a position and impartial in its political beliefs, she was the face and voice of the Kosovo government for more than a year at a time when Kosovo past returned to the March 2004 riots. She announced her time out from politics at the end of 2004, due to  her marriage with Arben Lila, and her son being born in the following year. Mimoza Kusari added the surname of her husband's last name and now uses Kusari Lila as its official name thereafter. She restarted the political activity as director of the Department of Energy in the Ministry of Energy and Mines, following with the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, where she served as executive director during 2006-2009. While she was engaged in the American Chamber in Kosovo, in 2009 she finished a four-month research project as the Fulbright Scholarship at Georgetown University, capital research  center in Washington DC, focusing on the development of capital markets in the developing world. During her stay was invited as guest speakers at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars event to introduce substantial development challenges in Kosovo. In 2009. Mimoza Kusari Lila makes official her candidacy for mayor of Gjakova within the party AKR. Mimoza Kusari Lila has been named Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo and Minister of Commerce and Industry on 23 February 2011, and has served in this capacity until October 2, 2013, when irrevocably resigned from all positions in the government of Kosovo because of  its commitment to election campaign for Mayor of Gjakova for the second time, this time winning in the second round. She became the first woman mayor in history of Kosovo.