Associate Professor in Social Sciences / Chairperson of the European Dementia Carers Working Group for Alzheimer Europe. Based at Klaipeda University. After receiving her PhD, she chose a non-researcher path in the academia. She has held various managerial positions at the university for about ten years, her area of competence is the management of study processes. Currently Sonata serves as the vice-rector for academic affairs at the University. All those years, she continued lecturing. She hosts a courses on social policy and social gerontology to social work, public health and nursing students. She is also contributing to the development of the national long-term care staff training programme in Lithuania.