Board of Directors

Gabriela Arias Villela is the Deputy Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland.  She was previously posted in Shanghai, China, and Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.  She was most recently in Washington, D.C., serving as the Public Diplomacy Office for the Nordic, Baltic, and Arctic regions.  She received a master's degree from Georgetown University in Latin American studies and attended the College of William & Mary for her undergraduate degrees in government and history.

Erika Holt is a principal scientist and customer manager at VTT the Technical Research Centre of Finland, a non-for-profit company supporting the Finnish government, businesses and society. She has over 25 years of experience in conducting research and leading projects on material durability and performance in harsh environments. She is a world-renown expert in the field of radioactive waste management. Her current role is as a Customer Account Lead responsible for VTT’s customer relations and partnerships in the overall nuclear safety sector. She is a certified IPMA-C project manager, overseeing complex national and international projects.  Earlier she was a Research Team Leader within the Lifecycle Solutions business area. She has also served as the Program Manager of VTT’s program for Safe and Sustainable Nuclear Energy. 

Erika holds a Doctoral Degree from the University of Washington (Seattle, USA, 2001) in Civil and Environmental Engineering, with an emphasis on concrete material durability.

She was the recipient of a Fulbright scholar grant to Finland at VTT during her PhD work (1998-99) and VALLE Scandinavian Scholar awards from the University of Washington (1996-97, 1997-98).  

Sari Havu-Nuutinen (PhD in education) is professor of early years education in University of Eastern Finland, Philosophical faculty. She has nearly 25 years’ experience as a teacher educator in the fields of early years education, science education, and pedagogical studies in teacher education.

Her research expertise focuses on conceptual learning and learning environments in science education with young learners and she has led several research projects related to these themes. In her research groups work several international and Finnish doctoral students focusing on her research expertise.

She has strong experience in higher education leadership, and she has been designing and leading research based and customized educational projects internationally. She is an alum of the Fulbright Finland Foundation (2015-16 ASLA-Fulbright Research Grant for a Senior Scholar).

Kaarle Hämeri is the Chancellor of the University of Helsinki and Professor in Aerosol physics since 2003.

He has published more than 130 peer reviewed international papers in leading journals of aerosol and atmospheric sciences. In addition, author of high school (lukio) physics book series.

He has held many positions of trust in international and national scientific associations among which the president positions of the International and European Aerosol Assemblies and Union of the University Professors (Professoriliitto). He is also recipient of the International Aerosol Fellow award 2016.

Ilkka Lakaniemi is Director of the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research (CKIR) at the Aalto University School of Business. CKIR builds bridges between academia and industry advancing research to market adoption.

Prior to Aalto, he has held senior management positions in business development, corporate strategy and venturing at Combient - the Nordic Industry network, Finland Chamber of Commerce, Nokia Corporation and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Mr Lakaniemi is a Fulbright Finland Foundation and the American-Scandinavian Foundation alumni conducting post-graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley in 1994-96. He has studied and worked as a researcher in political economy and modern history at the University of Helsinki, United Nations University - WIDER and the University of Edinburgh. Photo: Aalto University

Sten Olsson is a partner within global law firm White & Case. Dual-qualified as a Finnish and a New York attorney, Sten practiced for several years in New York and London and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2001. He serves on the boards and finance committees of several non-profit foundations.

Sten holds a Master of Laws from the University of Helsinki and an LL.M. from New York University. He is an alum of the Fulbright Finland Foundation.

Nelson Totah is an Associate Professor in Neurophysiology and Pharmacology at the University of Helsinki. He leads the Neuronal Networks for Learning and Cognitive Control Lab. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2017) and then a Research Group Leader (2017-2019) at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany. Nelson has served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Brain Research Society of Finland since 2022.

He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Science National Honor Society, a U.S.-based science education non-profit organization, which he founded in his hometown of Houston, Texas in 2000. He is an alum of the Fulbright Finland Foundation.

Holly Zardus is the Public Affairs Officer for Embassy Helsinki.  Her previous post was in Washington as the China Public Diplomacy Desk Officer in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs (EAP). She has been a Public Diplomacy Officer for most of her time with the State Department, having served two recent tours as Cultural Affairs Officer in Belgrade, Serbia and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Before that she was Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Jakarta, Indonesia following a tour as Consular Officer in U.S. Embassy Beijing, from 2010-2012. Her first tour in the State Department, in the Public Diplomacy Office in EAP, followed a career as a public high school history and government teacher in Seattle, Washington.  She has a bachelor’s degree in China Studies and master’s in teaching, both degrees from the University of Washington.  Her hometown is in Jackson, Wyoming.