Between 2023 and 2025, Ambassador Simona-Mirela Miculescu served as as President of the 42nd UNESCO General Conference, becoming the first Romanian to head a governing body of this organization in Romania's more than 69 years of membership, and the fifth woman to hold this position in UNESCO's 80-year history.
In January 2021, Amb. Miculescu became Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Delegate of Romania to UNESCO, after completing her term as Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Director of the United Nations Office in Belgrade (2015-2020).
Previously, she served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations, between 2008 and 2015.
During her tenure in New York, Ambassador Miculescu held several positions, including: Vice-Chair of the UNICEF Executive Board, Vice-President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Vice-President of the Bureau of La Francophonie, Chair of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) of the General Assembly during its 66th session, Vice-President of the United Nations General Assembly for its 68th session, and President of the 53rd session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development.
Ambassador Simona-Mirela Miculescu's diplomatic career spans more than 34 years and includes positions as Spokesperson for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Senior Communications Advisor to the Minister (1993 and 1999), Director of the Press Department within the same ministry (1994 and 2008), Press Attaché at the Romanian Embassy in the United States (1994-1998), and Senior Public Information Officer at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission in Kosovo (1999-2000).
Between 2000 and 2004, she served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Romania, with ministerial rank.
Between 2006 and 2007, she served as Senior Advisor for Public Communications to the Government of Iraq, as part of a project funded by USAID.
Ambassador Simona-Mirela Miculescu holds the title of Doctor Honoris Causa Beneficiorum Publicorum from the West University of Timișoara, as well as the title of Doctor Magna Cum Laudae from Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca.
Alongside her diplomatic career, she has developed a rich academic and public communication activity, including teaching international public relations courses at two Romanian universities, as well as publishing several books and articles on these topics. In her country, she is also recognized as one of the leading experts in the field of international public relations management, notably for developing the first Romanian university curriculum on this subject, a program now used by several universities.
Amb. Miculescu also achieved several firsts during her career, including: first female spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993), creator and coordinator of Romania's first official website (1995), author of the first Romanian university course on international public relations (2001), first woman in Romanian diplomatic history to be awarded the rank of Ambassador (2002), first female Ambassador of Romania to the United Nations (2008), first Romanian diplomat to hold a high-level position – Representative of the UN Secretary-General – within the UN Secretariat (2015), first female Ambassador of Romania to UNESCO (2021).
Ambassador Simona-Mirela Miculescu is married, has two children, and is a grandmother of two grandchildren.