Speakers for the 2026 August Arrival Orientation

Ilkka Haavisto is Research Manager at Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA. He has worked with a wide range of economic and social issues including public sector reform, taxation, labour market and the EU. He graduated from Åbo Akademi University (economics and philosophy) in 2000.

Dr. Heikkinen has been with the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland since 2005. Her tasks consist of national and international science policy responsibilities. An essential part of her work takes place in national and multinational networks. Dr. Heikkinen is heading the Science Policy Division of the Department of Higher Education and Science Policy.

Birger Holm currently works as a Vice Principal, History and Civics Teacher at Haukilahti School in Espoo. He is the U.S. State Department’s Voluntary Visitor Program alumnus and has promoted interdisciplinary studies in Finland by inspiring English teachers to introduce more U.S. History content in English classes.

Counselor Janne Jokinen is currently serving as Expert at the Unit for North America of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. He has worked in the Finnish Foreign Service since 2001. 

Among Mr. Jokinen’s previous assignments are his posting as Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Finland to the Kingdom of Sweden (2022-2025), as Head of the Political Section at the Embassy of Finland in Washington D.C. (2013-2017), and as Desk Officer for Human Rights, Social Development, the Status of Women and Indigenous Issues at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations in New York (2005-2008). 

At the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jokinen has worked, inter alia, as Deputy Chief of Strategic Planning, Deputy Head of the Unit for the Middle East and North Africa, Desk Officer for Human Rights Policy at the United Nations and at the European Union, and Expert at the Unit for Northern Europe and Regional Cooperation. 

From 2020 to July 2022, Mr. Jokinen was seconded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. At the Centre, his work focused on the role of Non-State Actors.

In 2006, Mr. Jokinen received the degree of Licentiate of Political Science from the University of Turku, Finland.

Kristiina Jomppanen, MA, is a Finnish, German, and North Sámi language teacher. She is currently working with Sámi language learning materials at the University of Lapland, and as a language teacher at the Inari Community College. She specializes in adult foreign language education, and is also working towards her second master’s degree at the University of Oulu. She spent her Fulbright grant period as a Finnish Language and Culture Teaching Assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017-2018. 

Alma Komulainen holds a Master of Arts in Finnish language from the University of Helsinki. In the 2025–2026 academic year, she worked as a Fulbright Finnish Language Teaching Assistant at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Emma Mulhern is a Research Scientist on the Transport and Mobility team at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She is also pursuing a PhD in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility at the Hanken School of Economics. Her research focuses on the development of clean hydrogen transportation networks in Finland. Emma was a Fulbright-LUT University Graduate Award Grantee in 2021-22 and completed her master's degree in Supply Management at LUT University in 2023. 

As Associate Dean, Sofia Stolt supports pedagogical development and language policy issues, and works closely with Hanken's Teaching Lab. She is also Director of the Centre for Languages and Business Communication as well as the chair of the Committee for Educational grants and chair for the Teaching Evaluation Committee at Hanken. As part of her external duties, she is a member of the Matriculation Examination Board and chair for the section of the mother tongue Swedish. Stolt obtained her PhD in 2017 from the University of Helsinki and has a background in teaching Swedish as mother tongue and in public management. Her research focuses on assessment, educational leadership, and high-stakes examinations.

Jukka Tanskanen is the Head of Science Policy and International Affairs at the Research Council of Finland (RCF). He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Eastern Finland and has a diverse background spanning materials science, nuclear waste management, and science policy. Before joining the RCF in 2014, Tanskanen worked as a materials physicist at Posiva, a leading expert organization in nuclear waste management, and as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. In 2017–2018, he also served as a part-time process engineer for Applied Materials in Santa Clara, California. More recently, during 2023–2024, he took a leave of absence from the RCF to work as a senior specialist at the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Department for Higher Education and Science Policy. In his current role at the RCF, Tanskanen is responsible for shaping science policy advocacy, advancing knowledge management and utilization, and coordinating the agency’s international engagement. His work plays a key role in strengthening Finland’s research landscape and global scientific engagement. 

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.