Dr Metka Paragi holds a doctoral degree in basic medical sciences from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ljubljana. Her scientific research focused on communicable diseases, their diagnostics and epidemiology. She is an internationally recognised expert in public health microbiology. She served as the national contact point for microbiology at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm for more than 15 years. She was also a member of several international networks for the prevention and control of communicable diseases.

Dr Paragi established the only national public health laboratory at the National Laboratory of Health, Environment and Food, which she successfully headed for many years, contributing to its significant international scientific achievements. She was invited as a lecturer to many European and world congresses on communicable diseases and organised several herself.

She also worked in mental health. Together with the late psychiatrist Andrej Marušič, she conducted an international study on suicide genetics.

Her awareness of the importance of healthy nutrition for public health led her to many years of collaboration with RTV Slovenia in preparing healthy recipes.

She has worked in the public healthcare system for more than 30 years.