Olivera was born and raised in Kriva Palanka, Macedonia. Despite limited resources, she managed to educate herself and help her two siblings earn advanced degrees abroad.

She worked on projects for the British Council and Peace Corps before being granted a scholarship to Perrotis College in Thessaloniki, Greece, where she was Valedictorian for her graduation.

Olivera completed a B.S. at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR and won the Wall Street Journal Award for Academic Excellence.

She then finished an M.S. in Applied and Agricultural Economics with an emphasis on international trade at Virginia Tech. She has since helped numerous other Macedonian students tackle the admission process, earn scholarships and academically succeed at American universities.

Olivera is a manager at Essentia Advisory Partners and specializes in international electricity and gas markets. Additionally, Jankovska holds two other roles; she is a Nonresident Scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy as well as she is a Global Citizenship Fellow at UNICEF USA in Houston. Her consulting and research areas of expertise include energy policy and modeling, Mexico energy reform, environmental regulations and international trade and development. Previously, Jankovska served in numerous roles at Calpine Corporation, where she developed statistical models to forecast supply/demand fundamentals in the U.S. natural gas and power markets and provided strategic advice for commercial decisions on commodity markets and fundamental risk factors. She received the Commercial Impact Award in 2012 and 2013 for her work at Calpine Corporation.

Jankovska is global citizen and an avid traveler. She has more than ten years of non-profit work experience and she has held multiple leadership roles. Olivera’s volunteering work extends to many cultural, educational and business organizations. Because of it, she was recently recognized as one of the 2015 United Macedonian’s Diaspora “40 under 40”. Olivera currently serves as one of the United Macedonian Diaspora Representative for her small, but culture-rich country: Macedonia. She loves to travel with her India-born husband, an Electrical Engineer in the oil and gas industry. Olivera’s favorite hobby is learning and speaking foreign languages. She is currently working on mastering her 7th language: Hindi. Recently, she founded Atlas Ink, which strives to help caregivers, parents and educators raise multicultural kids by publishing personalized children’s books and other educational content about their homeland.  Check out the latest published books here!

Every time I introduce myself at social gatherings, my Macedonian origin elicits curiosity from people who may or may not have even heard of this small Balkan country. To better explain my heritage, I will start drawing maps, enthusiastically describing the landscape and culture of Macedonia. In no time more and more people will join in the conversation, poised with questions. By the end of the conversation, everyone walks away with a beautiful and vivid image of Macedonia, as a place filled with ancient history and diverse culture. I am honored to say that, since 2005, I have inspired more than 30 different groups of family, friends and professional acquaintances, from almost every continent in the world, to visit our great county.

I am very proud of being Macedonian and this pride is easily noticeable. In my youth, I promoted Macedonian culture by performing in plays and folk dances in Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia. At a U.N. youth camp in the UK, I gave presentations and organized “Macedonian evenings”; I constantly expressed this pride while studying in college in Greece, universities in Arkansas and Virginia in the USA, while working at my job in Texas, at business meetings in Mexico, and at my in-law’s family gatherings in India. My passion for promoting my country not only exposed me to educational and professional opportunities, but more importantly provided me with personal growth, travel experiences and new friendships.

I believe that pursuing an international education is one of the most rewarding experiences in life, and so I encourage my fellow Macedonians to seek such a journey. No matter how great the obstacles may seem, if one has a strong will, there is always a way to achieve this goal.