Dr. Jelinek is the chair of The European Data Protection Board (EDPB), an independent European body, which contributes to the consistent application of data protection rules throughout the European Union, and promotes cooperation between the EU’s data protection authorities. The EDPB succeeded the former Article 29 Working Party, which Dr. Jelinek also chaired from February-May 2018. Since January 1, 2014, Dr. Jelinek, who holds a doctorate degree in law, has served as the head of the Austrian Data Protection Authority. While still a student, she worked as a consultant at the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), later as a trainee lawyer, and from 1991 as a legal officer at the General Secretariat of the Austrian Rectors' Conference. Two years later, Dr. Jelinek moved to the Ministry of the Interior, where she first worked as a legal officer and later as head of department in the legal and legislative department. One of her specializations - asylum and immigration law - helped determine her further career. From October 2010 to June 2011, she was head of the Vienna Foreign Police. Before that, in 2003, she was the first woman in Vienna to be appointed head of a police commissioner's office.