Velislava’s research spans across the United States, Europe, the UK, and Southeast Asia, focusing on the intersection of digital technologies, education governance, and children’s rights. As a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society (2018-19), she investigated the U.S.’s emerging cradle-to-career data pipelines and the rapid digitization of education. Her European research highlights the expanding influence of private digital enterprises in schools, examining how this impacts governance, data-driven decision-making, and student well-being. In the UK, she advocates for stringent standards in the EdTech sector, collaborating with industry and educational stakeholders to advance governance frameworks that safeguard children’s rights and enhance educational quality.

Velislava has provided consultations for UNESCO, the UK Department for Education, the European Broadband Commission and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on EdTech standards and AI use in education. She has presented her work at prestigious international conferences, forums, and convenings including International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, UNESCO, Open Development Cambodia, IEEE, Westminster Education Forum, My Data Global, the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference, and others.

Her contributions to global education security standards include collaborations on projects such as Global Education Security Standard (GESS) and EU-Horizon-TRUSTEE projects, and research with the EU’s Joint Research Centre and Visionary Analytics on digital well-being for children. She is a frequent contributor to publications like TES, The Progressive, and The Daily Telegraph, Jacobin, and CETIC Brazil.

Since 2020, Velislava has been a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and teaches at Goldsmiths University of London. She serves as a school governor in a public secondary school in England and as an advisory member of Open Development Cambodia.Velislava is a mother of three children