Speakers for the 2025 Fulbright Leaders for Global Schools Program

Since August 2024, I have been working as a principal in the Viikki training school of the University of Helsinki, my primary responsibility being that of high school principal’s duties.

I find that I am development-oriented principal in an otherwise traditional school environment, and my personality and enthusiasm fit the culture of a training school. Colleagues say that I make it visible how everyday successes are a part of larger entities and goals.

Before starting in Helsinki I worked as a regional principal in Porvoo, Finland. I acted as a supervisor for the principals and school secretaries in the Finnish-speaking secondary schools. Part of my job was also high school content development in cooperation with the director of education and the upper secondary school management team. The most important thing in my job as a regional principal was to bring a strategy level content for the principal's everyday life, strengthen the structures of cooperation and operational culture among principals and help principals in their everyday-life challenges. I have also worked as a principal for four years in a high school with 150 students. From my background I am a teacher of English and German languages, and I profiled very much as an advocate for international studies; I have lived and worked abroad on many occations. I graduated from the University of Jyväskylä in 2010.

Principal, CEO Ms Tiina Immonen has been in Mercuria Business College for over 30 years. She has worked as a vocational teacher, student counsellor, vice principal and since 2011 as Principal. Ms Immonen is an enthusiast of young people, and she has achieved creating a genuine working culture of care, appreciation and trust. She has been working actively to increase the appreciation for vocational education. Ms Immonen has been a trailblazer for the ideas of competence-based evaluation and that of personalisation. She was awarded as The Leader of Vocational Education of 2018.

MA in Finnish Language and Literature
Teaching in Finnish state schools over 30 years. Since 2002 in Oulu International School MYP coordinator and deputy head of the school. Acting principal at Oulu International school 2013-2015. Involved in curriculum development work in 1994, 2004, and 2016. Member of National Board of Education curriculum team in 2016 for CLIL schools and Oulu city education department curriculum team. Board Member of AFIB (Association of Finnish IB schools) 2009-2011. Chair person of the Finnish Association for Bilingual schools in Finland 2015-. Lead the IB MYP implementation at OIS starting 2002 and coordinated the Student Welfare Team work of OIS since 2004. Has lectured and led workshops at STEPS (Sharing tools for English public schools in Finland) seminars and abroad in IB conference and training Ukrainian teachers in Donetsk about ICT in classroom. Planned, established and started a comprehensive school in Liminka municipality 2018. Principal of the school since 2018 to present. School has a pre-school students and primary years students. School is specialized on bilingual education, flexible pre-primary and primary years education, and extended special education.

Teijo Koljonen holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Helsinki. He has worked as a teacher, deputy-head and head of school. Currently he is working in the Finnish National Agency for Education as a Senior Adviser in Education with issues related to national curriculum development, teaching of STEM subjects, assessment criteria for learning outcomes and evaluation of grant applications.

The Finnish National Agency for Education is the national development agency responsible for early childhood education and care, pre-primary, primary and secondary education as well as for adult education and training.

Anu Kröger is a PhD and docent/associate professor, who works as the Head of Faculty Development in the Faculty of Education, University of Turku. She has extensive expertise on teaching and teacher education, including working as a class teacher for several years. Kröger has especially been involved in two national teacher education development projects. She is the operational director of the national Finnish Teacher Education Database (FinTED) and she was the director of the OVET project (2017–2020), which created national aptitude testing for Finnish teacher education. 

Tapio Lahtero (Ph.D., Adjunct Professor) has been making his career both in the education departments of municipalities and at the universities. He graduated as a primary teacher at the University of Turku in 1993 and made his doctoral theses at the University of Jyväskylä in 2011 with the topic “Leadership culture at schools”. eMBA exam in Leadership in the public management he finished in 2015 at the University of Tampere. 

Tapio Lahtero has worked for over twenty years as a principal, as a regional principal and as the head of the comprehensive schools in the education department in City Vantaa. Since 2015 he is the Administrative Principal of both Teacher Training Schools of the University of Helsinki – Viikki Teacher Training School and Helsinki Normallyceum. 

Tapio Lahtero has been educating principals and leaders of education departments of municipalities at the Universities of Jyväskylä and Turku. Currently he works as the leader of the principal training program in the university of Helsinki. He has published several research articles about leadership culture, strategic leadership and pedagogical leadership.

Krista Lahtinen has extensive work experience in the field of education and upbringing. She has held various positions, including teacher, principal, trainer, and expert, spanning from early childhood education to secondary education. Lahtinen has also had a long career in educational policy and has worked, for instance, in the Finnish Parliament.

Her work has occasionally taken her to international assignments through various projects. The most interesting project was the establishment of a Finnish-Romanian school and kindergarten in Bucharest from 2010 to 2013. Lahtinen served as the principal's and school management team's pedagogical expert and mentor. She also played a key role in developing the school's curriculum.

In her current role, Lahtinen is responsible for the curriculum for basic education, the development and coordination of basic education processes, stakeholder collaboration, and leading personnel competence. She is a member of the leadership team for basic education.

Lahtinen holds a Master’s degree in Education and qualifications as a principal as well as a subject teacher in psychology and religious studies. She has enhanced her leadership skills with two additional qualifications: a Specialist Qualification in Management and a Personnel and Competence Management qualification.

In her free time, Lahtinen is a passionate athlete and enjoys nearly all forms of exercise, from skiing to yoga. At times, she can be found working on puzzles or crossword challenges.
Lahtinen’s family includes her 8-year-old daughter and her husband.

Eeva Lumiaro is Head of the Friisilä primary school in Espoo, Finland. Eeva is the special education teacher of Friisilä school. She has a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Helsinki. She works also as a pedagogical expert of multicultural teaching and the preparatory teaching in Espoo city. Her international career includes work as a special education teachers’ mentor for the Abu Dhabi Education Council.

Helena Mikkola (Ms.)  has 25 years of experience in International Affairs in education sector.  25 years ago she started as International Coordinator in Turku Vocational Institute. Since 2011 she has been in charge of International Affairs in Turku City’s Education Services. The Education Services of the City of Turku include early childhood education, basic education, upper secondary education, vocational education, and liberal adult education centers. Education services are offered in Turku in both Finnish and Swedish.

She holds Master’s Degree in Political Science (University of Turku) and also Pedagogical Qualification for Teaching. Helena Mikkola has completed a Specialized Vocational Qualification in Management.

In Education Services/City of Turku, Helena Mikkola is responsible for strategic development and operational planning in international cooperation. She leads the international and global education team. She is also involved in various projects. These projects are used for different types of project funding, such as the EU's Erasmus funding. Organizing and planning the program of various visits is part of her team's work.
 

Dr. Tuija Niemi has worked in the Teacher Training School of Turku since 2001. In 2019 she was elected to the position of a vice principal in basic education, and in 2002 she earned her PhD in Educational Sciences.

During the past four years she has concentrated on developing the school community and deepening her understanding of leadership issues. In addition to teacher training, her expertise lies especially in classroom teaching, foreign language learning and teaching and multicultural education. She has worked as a lecturer and educator in various occasions concerning language learning and teaching, bi- and multilingualism, content and language integrated learning and teaching (CLIL) and multilingual school and its pupils. She is responsible for the coordination of the content and language integrated learning (CLIL) program at the Teacher Training School as well as for the coordination of the teaching practices. She also has experience in different international projects, including transnational education projects, EC2U cooperation and Erasmus exchange students’ training in our school.

Ms. Katja Nieminen dedicated 20 years to the field of education before transitioned to international projects in Mercuria. Currently she works as international coordinator. Working in international context has been her dream ever since childhood and now she can combine her experience of working with young people as well as internationalization. She takes care of Mercuria’s various international projects and internships. International operations in Mercuria are active and versatile. Mercuria has earned international acclaim for its ambitious projects. Mercuria was awarded the European Innovative Teaching Award 2022, which is a recognition of the pedagogical work of teachers and their educational institutions in various European cooperation projects.

I have worked in the educational field for about 20 years already. At first as a Swedish and English teacher and later on as a principal and vice principal. I am eager to develop our school and the educational field so that social cohesion is reached more widely. In my free time a like to spend time with my family and friends. I also like to travel a lot. I have a masters degree in English and Scandinavian languages and I have also studied pedagogy and pedagogical leadership for many years. 
 

Vice principal Mr Markus Oedewald is currently in charge of developing pedagogy of young students in different learning environments (school, eKampus, work). His work consists mainly on management and leadership including strategy planning, pedagogical and curriculum management, supervising development managers and student counsellors, and co-operation with companies and other stake holders. As he has extensive experience and education in International Business Cultures and Tourism Business his area of responsibility includes many international and domestic projects.

Kirsi is Principal at the Lahti Rudolf Steiner School (grades K-12). She is still in charge of developing and organizing annual Biology Camps for high school students at her school. Prior to becoming a Principal she worked an extended time as a biology, chemistry, and geography teacher in different schools and levels from secondary to university. Her Master of science degree focused on Cell and Molecular Biology. Besides her administrator and broad teaching experience at different schools, Kirsi has gained expertise through her work at the Science Center Heureka in Vantaa, Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, California, and LUMA Centre in Lahti (promotes competence i.e. mathematics, science and technology), where she has been developing hands-on laboratory activities for visiting student groups. Kirsi has a long history of sharing her school, STEM education networks, events and practices with the U.S. Fulbright teachers, and she hosted the second Fulbright LGS cohort in her school, and introduced Multi-disciplinary Learning in Nature for Fulbright-Hays Seminar participants in Lapland during summer 2024.

Mr. Valkila is the Administrative principal of the Teacher Training School in the Faculty of Education, University of Turku. Earlier on he worked as a principal of Turku International School for 16 years. He also has a long experience as a history and social science teacher in an IB Diploma Programme schools both in Finland and in Belgium. While he has been working for the Teacher Training School, he has also been a lecturer in the Faculty of Education. Mr. Valkila is specialised in school leadership and management, professional development programmes for teachers and principals and international education programmes. He has been giving various international lectures arranged through the University of Turku.

Master's degree on Education, and special teacher's degree from University of Helsinki.
Worked as a principal or in school administration since 1996 in primary schools, secondary school and vocational education, both mainstream and special schools. 
International career includes teacher training in Kosovo, Pristina University and mentoring school administration and teachers in Montenegro about multiprofessional work and inclusion.
Degree, and experience about counselling working communities, mainly schools. Degree and experience also working as a mediator with interaction problems in schools.