Ivana Iskra Janošić was born in 1942 in Duga Resa; she completed real high school in Prijedor (Bosnia and Herzegovina), after which she enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy, single major archaeology. She graduated in 1965, and the same year had an appointment at the Archaeology Institute of the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, working there until 1968.
She took over curatorial duties in Vinkovci City Museum in 1968. During her work she was promoted to the rank of museum adviser. Working as curator, she carried out the jobs of director in the period from 1970 to 1991. After arriving in the museum, she enrolled in post-graduate school, and the theme of her MA was Oriental Cults in Our Part of Pannonia. On the basis of her research, published works and work on rescue archaeology operations in the area of Vinkovci, her doctoral thesis on the topic of Cibalae and the Development of Ceramic Centres with a special reference to pottery production was accepted, the result of her own research in the area of the Roman settlement Colonia Aurelia Cibalae.
During her long-time work as manager she carried out archaeological investigations in the antique sites of Pakoštani and Muline (Ugljan), Vučedol and Bapska, in the medieval sites of Borinci, Meraja and Vinkovci, and all the major excavations in the area of Vukovar and Srijem County.
She investigated 35,000 square meters of various sites, including 25,000 square metres inside Vinkovci city.
She has produced some dozen exhibitions of her own, and written articles about the results of research in scholarly and specialised papers, catalogues and newspaper articles. For her work, she was decorated with the Order of the Croatian Daystar with Figure of Marko Marulić and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the V-S County.

NB. Data taken from the questionnaire, material taken from the Personnel Archives of the MDC, and from an interview recorded on March 27, 2006.