Staff

Staff Profiles (Finland)

Sari Höylä (M.Soc.Sci) is Senior Lecturer of Civic Activities and Youth Work. Previously, she has made a long career in the City of Helsinki Youth Department and experienced professional youth work in practice. She started her working career as a manager in a youth centre, working directly with young people. Voluntary-based youth work and civic activities in youth associations and NGOs are also familiar to Sari and she has worked as a supporter of local and district youth organizations. Developing youth work practices through international co-operation has been her main focus over the last 15 years.

Osmo Jurvanen is Senior Lecturer. During his career he has been alternating between social work and teaching. In social work he has worked mainly with children, adolescents, and families, for example in child welfare and in schools. As a teacher he has worked earlier in institutions providing education in the social sector. He was a member of a working group preparing a reform of the pupil and student welfare legislation in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in 2005-2006.

Jukka Määttä (Ph.D. Educ.) is Principal Lecturer at the NGO and Youth Work Unit and responsible for the unit’s international degree programmes. He has worked for HUMAK since 1999 as a lecturer, campus coordinator, and principal lecturer. Before entering the HUMAK faculty he worked as a researcher at the Institute of Educational Sciences of the University of Jyväskylä and as an evaluator for the National Board of Education in Helsinki. His interests include the development of cross-border co-operation in youth work and education between Finland and the Russian State of Karelia.

Jussi Ronkainen (Dr. Soc. Sc) is a principal lecturer at the NGO and Youth Work unit. He worked previously as a researcher and lecturer of sociology at the University of Eastern Finland. His main research and international and national publications have concentrated mostly on multiple citizenship and multicultural youth in Finland.

Staff Profiles (England)

The following list includes the persons most closely associated with the CD-project so far. All of these participated in some or all of the project workshops that have taken place so far. In addition, workshops drew on the expertise of a small number of other colleagues from the hosting institutions. The development team will also function as the core teaching personnel in the study programme, complemented by outside expertise from within the three participating universities and the professional field.

Colleagues from across the work of the Institute for Applied Social Research (ISAR) will be involved in teaching and supervising students. They include:                    
Prof. David Barrett has worked with the Children’s Society to change law and policy on child prostitution and has advised the Cabinet. David recently presented the keynote address at the Child and Youth Prostitution in the Nordic Region conference jointly sponsored by the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law and the Finnish Ministry of Justice. He is undertaking research, consultancy, and scholarship with colleagues at East China University of Politics and Law, Tartu University, Estonia, and HUMAK University of Applied Sciences, Finland. David appears regularly on radio and TV.
Dr. Isabelle Brodie has written and researched extensively in the field of looked-after children and their educational needs. She has recently managed the second phase of the Taking Care of Education project at the National Children’s Bureau (in collaboration with the University of Bedfordshire), the results of which have been cited in parliamentary debates and have influenced recent government policy. She has worked closely with both the Making Research Count and Research in Practice initiatives at the University and presents her work regularly at national conferences. 
Dr. Cherilyn Dance has contributed extensively to the literature on adoption and fostering and is a recognized authority in her field. Cherilyn is involved in the Making Research Count initiative (a consortium of 10 regional local authorities and 10 universities). She has presented her work at national and international conferences.

Fiona Factor started her career as a youth worker running numerous street-based projects. Fiona has spent the previous 20 years delivering staff development programmes both for a local authority and at the University of Bedfordshire where she was responsible for training practitioners engaged in professional qualifying programmes for youth work. She has utilised this experience and shared her knowledge and skills both here and abroad through teaching, training, research, and publication. Her publications include a co-authored JRF-funded study Reaching Socially Excluded Young People (2004), The RHP Companion to Working with Young People (2001, with John Pitts and Vipin Chauhan), and From Emancipation to Correctionalism: UK Youth Work and the Politics of the Third Way (2001, with John Pitts). Prior to returning to the University, Fiona was running her own company supporting youth-serving organisations across the UK.

Dr. Donald Forrester specialises in the field of parental substance misuse and child welfare in the UK. He has subsidiary interests in assessment and filtering processes in social services, outcomes for children looked after by local authorities, and the development of social work internationally, in particular in the Arab world. 

Dr. Margaret Melrose is a consultant to the National Society for the Prevention of Child Cruelty (NSPCC) on service provision for young runaways, a member of Luton Drug and Alcohol Partnership Steering Group, and Luton Borough Council Research Governance Steering Group. She has researched and published extensively on children, young people, drug use, and the sex trade. Margaret has recently presented keynote papers at the American Criminal Justice Society Conference, Chicago, and the International Police Executive Symposium Conference, Vancouver, on prostitution, policing, and public protection. She was invited to co-edit the papers from this conference with David Barrett and Marlow. She appears regularly on radio and TV.

Dr. Suzella Palmer is a Lecturer and Research Fellow in Criminology. Suzella teaches units on Socially Excluded Young People, Crime and Justice, Youth Justice, Gangs and Group Offending, and Criminological Theory. Her research includes studies of gang desistance programmes and the experiences of crime, victimisation, and the justice system amongst three generations of African Caribbean families living on a North West London public housing estate.

Prof. Jenny Pearce’s JRF-funded research on sexually exploited young women has generated categories of risk that now inform local government protocols, central government policy, and police guidance. She has given keynote addresses at national and international conferences and organised a major conference on sexual exploitation, which provided the foundation for a special edition of the Child Abuse Review Journalon sexual exploitation. In 2006, she co-edited a special edition of the Community Safety Journal on the government’s prostitution strategy. Her work has been extensively cited by the Home Office and the Department of Health. She is Chair of the National Working Group on Young People and Sexual Exploitation and a board member of the UK Network of Sex Work Projects.

Prof. John Pitts is Editor of Safer Communities, a member of the editorial boards ofYouth Justice and Juvenile Justice Worldwide (UNESCO), a patron of Safer Society (Nacro) and Associate Editor of Youth and Policy (NYA). In 2005 he authored theCommunity Care Election Special Campaign Briefing on Youth Justice and presented it to an invited audience at the House of Commons. His recent publications include The New Politics of Youth Crime: Discipline or Solidarity (2001), Crime Disorder and Community Safety (with R. Matthews, 2001), The Russell House Companion to Youth Justice (with T. Bateman, 2005), and Reluctant Gangsters: the Changing Face of Youth Crime (2008).

Staff profiles (Estonia)

Allan Kährik is Head of the Department of Culture Education. He is also Programme Manager for two applied higher education programmes: Culture Management and Leisure Manager – Creative Activities Teacher. Life has taken Allan Kährik to Tallinn Polytechnic Institute for a year (radio engineering), for a year to the Institute of Theology (theology), and to Uppsala University for four years (Swedish and theology). Allan earned an M.A. in Applied Theology in 2001 from the University of Birmingham. Since 2005 Allan has pursued his Ph.D. studies at the University of Tartu, Faculty of Theology and his research focuses on theological university education in Estonia and its possible future models. In addition to his service as a priest at the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC) since 1997, he has also been Head of the EELC Institute of Theology (2002-2004) and its Vice Rector (2004-2005). From 2005 to 2008 he worked for the University of Tartu Open University as a project coordinator and was in charge of European Social Fund Measure 1.1. sub-project LÜKKA on curriculum development. He has published articles and given presentations on curriculum development.

Aurika Komsaare graduated from the University of Tartu in 1993 with an M.A. in Russian Language and Literature. Her thesis dealt with youth prisoners’ attitudes towards reading. She also earned an M.A. in Educational Sciences from Tallinn University in 2008 with a thesis on Russian-speaking students’ acculturation in Viljandi Culture Academy. 
She started working at Viljandi Culture Academy in 2000 as a teacher of Estonian for Russian-speaking students and Russian for Estonian-speaking students. She has also been the Academic Director of Cultural Self-identification studies.
As a member of the preparation team and as a lecturer she has participated in the interactive course Youth Worker in a Multicultural Environment (2009) and as a team-member in the international MINERVA project An Educational Dimension of Conflict Resolution through Cultural Production (see www.actanchange.eu ).
She has also worked as a social worker in a youth prison and as a teacher of Estonian for Russian-speaking students in Soldino High School in Narva.

Ivar Männamaa is Lecturer of Gaming and Experiential Learning. He has co-designed several educational simulation games and published articles on this topic. Ivar Männamaa's educational background is in psychology. He has initiated and managed different international projects focusing on effective learning environment.

Katrin Nielsen is Lecturer in Drama. She graduated from Tallinn Conservatory of Music with an M.A. in Drama in 1982 and worked as an actress in Pärnu Endla Theatre for 16 years. In her last theatre years she started to direct plays for children and also gave drama classes to high school students. In 2001 she started to teach future drama teachers at Viljandi Culture Academy and in the same year she was elected President of ASSITEJ Estonia. She was Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation festival NB Festival and has organised several seminars, playwright workshops, readings, and meetings with European theatre experts. In 2009 she earned an M.A. from the Estonian Music and Theatre Academy.

Külli Salumäe has been Lecturer at the Department of Culture Education for over 15 years. She teaches Leisure Management, Creative Education, and Public Speaking.
In addition, Külli has carried out in-service training on youth work and adventure pedagogy as well as on school youth work for both students and adults. As a member of several decisive bodies at Viljandi Culture Academy, she has a wide range of experience in organising events in educational institutions about development matters.
Külli has been a member of the Viljandi Town Council and Head of the Council’s Culture Committee, and is currently participating in the work of the Council’s Education Committee.
Having her background as a choir conductor, she has been conducting Viljandi St.Paul’s Church mixed choir for years, organised musical activities in the congregation, and has been Lead Conductor at the Estonian Sacred Song Festival.

Piret Eit has been a staff member since 2007. She teaches youth work methods with a specialisation in Adventure Education. Her previous work experience comes from youth work. In her teaching she highly appreciates the importance of practical activities and personal experience.

Sergei Drõgin has been Lecturer at the Department of Culture Education since November 2006 teaching several Adventure Education courses. He graduated from the same institution in 2005 as a leisure manager in a multicultural environment, with further specialization as an adventure education instructor. 
In his courses Sergei aims at teaching the students primarily practical skills that are important in instructing children and young people in a variety of situations and environments. Bearing this aim in mind he has contributed to the completion of such projects as Tuntud ja tundmatu Eestimaa (Familiar and unknown Estonia) and an international youth exchange project with Leeds in the UK. 
Sergei values highly the experience gained in the years 1998-2007 while working with young people at Viljandi Youth Prison, where he carried out two big projects:Adrenaliiniga heroiini vastu (Adrenalin against heroine) and Peegeldus (Reflection). In 2005 Sergei was nominated the best social worker of the year in the prisons system.

Tiia Pedastsaar is Lecturer in Andragogy-Pedagogy. Her working career began as a teacher in a general education school, followed by further studies for a postgraduate degree and the defence of a candidate thesis. Tiia has worked at higher educational institutions for more than 30 years. One of her major research areas has been didactics, especially the development of learning skills and university pedagogy. Second, she has researched extensively the integration of non-Estonian speaking students into Estonian society. In this context, a programme labelled Estica was developed and effectively applied in schools. In the course of this programme a number of textbooks were compiled and the efficiency of the programme was monitored during ten years. Third, she has done research on students’ learning information environment, the dynamics of which was tested by a longitudinal field study both in Estonian and Russian language schools. 
Tiia is the author of about 100 publications, has supervised over ten M.A. theses, and has participated in several ETF and EU grants, projects, and programmes.
Tiia Pedastsaar is a board member of the Estonian Academic Pedagogy Association, a member of several programme councils, a member of the social field team of the UT Pedagogicum, etc. She has completed inter-universities mentorship training and is also active in the field.

Urmo Reitav has been Lecturer in Youth Work since 2005; in 2005-2006 he was also Head of the Department of Cultural Education. He has previously worked at the UT Narva College as a lecturer and a project manager. He is also the former Director of Eesti Kodu (Estonian home) in Narva and has been a leisure manager and teacher at Narva Vanalinna Riigikool (Narva Old Town State School). Since 2008 Urmo has been Program Manager at UNICEF Estonian Committee and continues lecturing at the UT Narva College. 

Urmo Reitav is currently pursuing his PhD degree at the University of Tartu, Faculty of Social Sciences and has previously studied religion pedagogy and educational sciences. He is a member of the board of Estonian Youth Institute, a member of Estonian Association of Youth Workers, Assistant Head of the program council of European Youth Estonian Bureau, and a member of several committees, councils, and working groups.

Urmo Reitav participates actively in the field of youth work as a researcher, trainer, and youth worker. He has published several papers in the field, given presentations, provided training for both young people and adults, participated in several projects, and coordinated numerous projects.