Professor Andrea Tünde Barabás is a renowned Hungarian scholar of applied criminology, victimology and mediation. As a new step in her three decades of teaching, research and leadership, she will also take up the post of Director of the National Institute of Criminology from August 2022. On this occasion, she gave us an insight into the main stages of her professional career, her ars poetics of leadership and the old tasks and new challenges facing National Institute of Criminology. The Director was interviewed by dr. Csaba Szabó, deputy editorin- chief and Szandra Fazekas-Pátyodi editorial staff member.