Dora Kovačević was born in 1951 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In 1952 her family moved to Zagreb and in 1974 she graduated from printing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in the class of professor Albert Kinert. She received a scholarship of French Government to attend Ecole Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, where she graduated from sculpture. From 1997 she worked as professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.