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Global Health and Social Policy

an international community of teachers, researchers, and students

WGH Board and Student Board

Board

Dr Tuuli Lahti, Ph.D., Adjunct professor

Principal Lecturer, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Master School, Health and Well-being

Tuuli Lahti has worked in the field of public health since 2004. She is an expert in health promotion, policy, and services and has gained experience from both domestic and international settings. She has worked in public and non-governmental organizations focusing on research, higher education, and advocacy.

 

Aino Försti-Smith, Head of Communications

Aino is a Communications and Public Affairs professional with over 20 years of experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. She is a passionate advocate for Women’s Health and gender equality with extensive knowledge, experience, and networks in the area. Aino has worked across different countries and geographies including Finland, the Nordics, Germany, the United Kingdom, and South East Africa. Her main area of interest is reproductive health and access to family planning services. She believes that every woman should have the right to determine the number, timing, and spacing of her pregnancies.

 

 

Dr Charlotte Hammer, University of Cambridge

Dr Charlotte Hammer is an applied infectious diseases epidemiologist. She is the EverittButterfield Fellow in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Downing College, University ofCambridge. Her research focuses on emerging and high-consequence infectious diseases, covering aspects such as risk factor identification, development of novel surveillance systems and outbreak response mechanisms. Charlotte completed her PhD in the Health Protection Research Unit for Emergency Preparedness and Response under the supervision of Professor Paul Hunter on outbreak risks in humanitarian emergencies. After her PhD, Charlotte worked as an epidemiologist with the European Field Epidemiology Training Program (EPIET). During that time, she was involved in the COVID-19 response in the European Union and Papua New Guinea as well as the Ebola response in the North-Eastern DRC. Charlotte has been a member of the advisory board of Women In Global Health Finland since its inception in 2021 and is also the treasurer of the EPIET Alumni Association

 

 

Professor Salla Atkins

Salla Atkins is professor of Public Health (especially Global Health) at Tampere University, also affiliated to Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Her interests and experience is mainly in inequity, poverty, and health. She has over 70 publications mainly in international peer reviewed journals. Her current projects focus on health systems, tuberculosis and social protection and maternal health in countries such as Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, India and Finland.

 
 

 

Kaisa Lähdepuro

Kaisa Lähdepuro is a member of the Senior Advisory Board of Women in Global Health Finland. She works as a senior specialist at the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Through WGH Finland, she hopes to contribute to strengthening networks, knowledge exchange and capacity building for gender-transformative approaches in global health and health security. Kaisa holds M.A and M.Sc degrees with a focus on international relations, gender studies, economics and business.

 

Student Board

The members of the Women in Global Health Finland Student Board work actively with the chapter in representing the interests and needs of students across Finland in order to support them on their journey

Aurora Hirvonen

Aurora Hirvonen is a student at Laurea University of Applied Sciences where she is pursuing a Master’s degree in Global Health and Crisis Management. She has a previous academic background in Biomedical Sciences at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Recently, she was part of the Regional Reference Centre in the WHO Project for the World Eradication of Poliomyelitis at the University of Milan. For her future, she seeks a career that intertwines global well-being in humanitarian crisis and disaster management. She is excited to bring her share to Women in Global Health Finland, as part of the Student Board, to grow female global health leadership.

 

Chloe Stephenson

Chloe is a second-year master’s student in Public and Global Health at Tampere University. She moved to Finland from Canada with her cat, Baudelaire, in the summer of 2021. Her background is in philosophy and biology, and her previous master’s thesis explored the epistemic implications of consensus and dissent in science and their relevance to decision-making and policymaking. Her thesis drew heavily on feminist epistemology and philosophy of science, bringing out the importance of promoting public trust in science and science literacy. She is currently finishing up a traineeship at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), where she has been involved in drafting a document about implementation science and promoting the uptake of scientific outputs into policy and practice. She is keen to continue to explore these themes of promoting public trust in science, science literacy, and the uptake of scientific outputs into policy and practice in a public and global health context!

 

Elina Kervinen

Before initiating her studies in Global Health, Elina worked as a registered nurse in various hospital settings both in Finland and abroad. For the last eight years, Elina has been working in the intensive care unit for children aged between 0-16. Elina is currently studying in the Public and Global Health Master’s degree programme at the University of Tampere, and she aims to graduate during spring 2023. Her current studies have given her possibilities to take part in various research projects related to for example gender equality and social protection. As a member of WGH Finland -student board, Elina seeks to promote women’s equal participation in society and gender equality.

 

Adoration Chigere 

Adoration Chigere is a data management and analytics expert with a postgraduate background in public health and several years of experience in implementing public health interventions, to bridge the healthcare access divide in local communities. She is passionate about maternal and child health, community development, health system strengthening, and infectious disease prevention such as HIV/AIDs. She is an effective and dedicated leader focused on promoting health and well-being through health education, prevention services, educational outreaches, and data-driven policies. She holds a master’s degree in Public Health and Wellbeing from Northumbria University Newcastle, England, and a master’s degree in Epidemiology and Biomedical Data Science from the University of Oulu, Finland.