I am professor in environmental governance and policy within The Sea profiling area and the head of subject in public leadership at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Economics, and Law. I am also vice director of the SÅA Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Ocean Science (SOS). My research interests include environmental policy, politics and governance at various levels of governance and in multilevel contexts. My research focuses on the dynamics of governance and policymaking, the politics of knowledge and the construction of environmental problems and the related policies. My recent project portfolio includes a project Gendered norms and practices in Baltic and Nordic climate policy institutions (Nordforsk 2024-2027), two research projects funded by the Research Council of Finland, SeaHer (2018-2022) and Package-Heroes (packageheroes.fi, 2018-2023), a research project funded by Tiina & Antti Herlin Foundation (2018-2019, 2021), and a project funded by the Turku Urban Research Programme (2022-2024). In addition, I partner in several other multidisciplinary research projects related to marine environment, climate change, local governance, stakeholder involvement and marine protection, most importantly the HE project Protect Baltic (2023-2027).

I have my PhD from the University of Tampere in 2008.

I received the position of adjunct professor (docent) at the University of Helsinki in 2014.

I have previous work experience as researcher and senior researcher at the University of Tampere (2008-2014) and senior lecturer at the University of Turku (since 2015).