Collective Impact and Human Wellbeing

Petri Virtanen, PhD, is Professor of Administrative Sciences at the University of Vaasa and the CEO of ITLA Children´s Foundation. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Lapland, Tampere, and Helsinki and he has been Visiting Professor at the university of Canberra (Australia) in 2022-2023. His research interests have concentrated on the topics of organizational intelligence, public services, governance policies, service systems, public policy, and leadership. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and 25 books around these topics. His latest book Public sector leadership: a human-centred approach (co-authored with Marika Tammeaid and Harri Jalonen) was published by Routledge in 2022.

Mika Niemelä, PhD, is Professor of Practice at the university of Oulu, and he is the lead developer of the Finnish model of collective impact approaches to enhance children's psychosocial well-being at the local level of governance (public & publicly financed services at municipalities). Prof. Niemelä has conducted research of children's mental health in situations when parent suffers from chronic somatic illness. Prior to his professorship, Dr. Niemelä was researcher at the University of Oulu and Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare. Dr. Niemelä is lead trainer in family psychotherapy training programs run by the University of Oulu.

Tiina Ristikari, PhD, is a Research professor at the ITLA Children's foundation and a visiting researcher at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tampere. Her research interest covers the impact of childhood conditions on later well-being and the role of social and health care services and other community actors in promoting the resilience among families with different types of risk factors. Professor Ristikari has published over 70 articles and reports around these topics. Currently she works closely with several Finnish municipalities conducting collective impact initiatives with the goal to help families with children to be resilient when facing different adversities.

Kirsi Peltonen, PhD, is a Senior Researcher in INVEST Research Flagship Center at University of Turku. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tampere. Her research has focused on mental health of children and adolescents and on interventions targeted to them. She has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and participated in several books around these topics.