After completing her third year in high school, she travelled to the United States as part of a student exchange and graduated there.
She obtained a BA in English and Spanish from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1993, after which she joined the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party.
She worked for a number of years at the Foreign Ministry and the Croatian Embassy in Canada.
After earning her master's degree in political science in 2000, she was appointed an advisor at the Foreign Ministry.
In the 2003 parliamentary election she was elected to Parliament as a deputy of the HDZ and that same year she was appointed Minister of European Integration in the HDZ-led government.
In 2005 the ministries of European integration and foreign affairs were joined, and Grabar Kitarovic became Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. She remained in that post until 2008.
During her term as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Croatia started EU entry talks.
From 2008 to 2011, Grabar Kitarovic was Croatia's Ambassador to the USA. On her website she described that time as "beautiful, challenging and very demanding years".
In 2011 she applied for and was appointed NATO Assistant Secretary-General in charge of public diplomacy, as the first woman to be appointed to that post.
Grabar Kitarovic is married to Jakov Kitarovic, a professor at the Rijeka Faculty of Maritime Studies. They have a son and a daughter.
The presidential candidate of the HDZ and its coalition partners, Grabar Kitarovic launched her campaign under the slogan "For A Better Croatia". Calling for restoration of unity, optimism and new work energy in Croatian society, which she described as deeply divided, Grabar Kitarovic put special emphasis in her campaign on ways to deal with the country's difficult economic situation.
She said, among other things, that immediately upon taking office she would propose that the government hold a session at which solutions would be discussed to overcome the long-lasting economic crisis.