ASLA-Fulbright Alumni Association Board

CEO, Researcher
Kaupunkitutkimus TA - Urban Research TA
ASLA-Fulbright Mid-Career Professional Development Grant 2021-22

Maija Urponen is an entrepreneur and researcher at Kaupunkitutkimus TA, an independent company specialising on interdisciplinary analysis, impact assessments and practice-oriented research on urban development. She is a sociologist by training, with a PhD in Gender Studies (2010) and long-term experience in research management and international collaboration at the University of Helsinki. She was an ASLA-Fulbright Mid-Career Professional Development Grant holder at the University of Michigan in 2022. Her MCPD project was focused on multi-disciplinary collaboration between researchers and practitioners in seeking practical solutions for societal challenges. 

Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Eastern Finland
Fulbright Finland Travel Grants for Reseach Collaboration 2025-26

Kristina Leppälä is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland Business School Research Center for Sustainable Circular Economy. Leppälä also has an extensive, decades long experience in healthcare technology development. Leppälä is a 2025 Fulbright Finland Travel Grant for Research Collaboration recipient  as an invited scholar to Stanford University in California. There, she will be at the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences and the Doerr School of Sustainability. 

Doctoral Researcher in North American Studies and Political Science
University of Turku
ASLA-Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Research Fellows grantee 2021-22

Mila Seppälä is a doctoral researcher at the John Morton Center for North American Studies (JMC) and the Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science at the University of Turku, Finland. Her research focuses on youth political participation and the development of political imagination, strategies and aims in the gun violence prevention movement in the United States. She was an ASLA-Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Research Fellows grantee in 2021-2022 at the University of Texas at Austin, where she interviewed activists for her dissertation research.

Professor of Commercial Law
University of Eastern Finland 
U.S. – E.U. Fulbright Graduate Study Award for graduate studies related to E.U. affairs or E.U.-U.S. relations 2005-06

English Language Educator 
City of Helsinki
Fulbright Finland SUSI for Secondary School Educators Awardee 2024

Seda Altunbay is an English language educator based in Helsinki. She teaches at a Finnish Comprehensive School and coordinates EU-funded projects with a focus on digital pedagogy and international collaboration. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Changing Education at the University of Helsinki, where her research examines teachers’ futures thinking in basic education.

She was awarded the Fulbright Finland SUSI for Secondary School Educators grant and participated in the Study of the U.S. Institutes program at the University of Montana in 2024. Her project focused on curriculum development in basic education, with an emphasis on integrating American history and culture into language learning.

Doctoral Researcher
LUT University
ASLA-Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow 2024-25

Larry Abdullai is an interdisciplinary doctoral researcher at the School of Engineering Science, Department of Software Engineering, LUT University in Finland. His research focuses on multi-stakeholder engagement within ICT (Information and Communications Technology) ecosystems, with an emphasis on initiatives that promote sustainability. Larry studies how key actors in the ICT ecosystem—such as governments, organizations, employees, and end-users—perceive sustainability and their actions in advancing the sustainable design, development, and use of technology. As a 2024-25 ASLA-Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan's Erb Institute and School for Environment and Sustainability, Larry collaborated with technology organizations and surveyed end-users, gathering valuable insights to support his dissertation on fostering sustainability through collective action and a multi-stakeholder ecosystem approach.

Visiting Researcher
University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio
Fulbright-KAUTE Foundation Award 2024-25

Emmanuel Abu-Danso is a visiting researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Kuopio Campus. His research focuses on multidisciplinary approach to resources and contaminants separation technologies for sustainability and to meet current policy and regulatory frameworks. He has been a Fulbright-Kaute post-doctoral fellow at the Critical Metals Hub, Ames National Laboratory, Iowa (2024-25) to develop geo-inspired composite materials to capture and recover critical metals from mining wastewater streams.