From her birth on June 26, 1967, until her 15th birthday and the completion of primary school, Valentina lived in Ljubinje. She went on to Mostar and finished high school in medical studies, and then she enrolled and finished medical school at the University of Sarajevo.
In May,1992, during the war in Bosnia, she left Sarajevo to go to Ljubinje and start work as a physician. In 1995, she left Ljubinje with her family and emigrated to Canada.
When she arrived in Canada, she began the process of learning the English language while recertifying her medical diploma by passing Canadian and American medical licensing exams (MCQE1 and MCQE 2 for Canada, and USMLE step 1, USMLE step 2, and USMLE step 3 for the USA).
In 1999, she completed a mini residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, Florida.
In 2000, she moved to New York City, USA, where she completed residency in Psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry at New York University Medical Center, NYC.
During her residency training she completed an internship in evidence-based medicine and psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina. In addition, she completed a Psychoanalysis Fellowship through the New York University Medical Center, Psychoanalytic Institute, New York City.
In 2005, she passed her certification exams for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and began working at Blessing Health System as a Board Certified Psychiatrist and a Board Certified Geriatric Psychiatrist.
She dedicated her work to helping her patients, working with students, and becoming involved in the administration of the Hospital and professional organizations.
From 2015 until her death, she was the Medical Director of Psychiatry for the Blessing Health System.
In this short biography, her countless publications, presentations, awards, volunteer endeavors, and professional organizations are not mentioned. It is understood that these accomplishments were necessary to obtain her prior positions at various prestigious medical centers, maintain board certification, and continue her professional development. She performed all of these accomplishments and activities with great success and passion from the beginning of her primary education until the last days of her life.
She sincerely loved her profession and remained dedicated to it until her passing.
After 5 years of battling terminal disease, she died on March 7, 2017, in Quincy, Illinois.
By her wishes, she was buried in the city cemetery of Ljubinje, BiH