MLL Tampere Department is an NGO with 13-17 employees and 250 volunteers working to improve the well-being of children, young people and families in the Pirkanmaa region. Through regular collaboration with other NGOs and the public sector the Department helps families in a range of situations, providing for instance peer support groups for parents, workshops for young people, crisis help for families going through divorce, and a friendship program for immigrant moms. As the Executive Director I am responsible for developing and leading all the Department’s activities. This includes serving as the superior for our employees, being in charge of the budget and funding, as well as collaborating with numerous stakeholders.

Finnish Coeliac Society is a national level patient organisation with 21.000 members and 30 local branches. I was co-responsible for leading the Society’s operations (including budget and funding, human resources, strategic organisational renewal, administration). In my role I was also in charge of leading and developing the Society's nationwide voluntary work as well as an in-house team of voluntary work specialists. I was responsible for the annual main campaign week for coeliac awareness. The renewal of organizational practices as well as ramping up the Society’s digital services took a major part of my daily work. Other responsibilities included: Applying, reporting and managing of STEA-funding; coordinating the Society's annual assembly; communication and networking.

I developed the Coeliac Society's voluntary work, networks and volunteer activities. I led for instance a strategy process on the development of our local branches and created a volunteer training program for our organization. Furthermore, I managed the Coeliac Society's activities within the Southwestern region of Finland. I supported and trained our volunteers. I took part in policy work in professional networks within the third sector and health care. In addition to my other duties, I regularly wrote articles for our Society's magazine and took part in our communication on social media.

I was the leader of a STEA-funded development project, the aim of which was to enhance the mental and social well-being of people with coeliac disease. I had full responsibility of the project, which entailed, inter alia, planning of our activities, financial management of the project budget, as well as reporting of our activities to our funders. My tasks within the project were various: I wrote articles and spoke of the project themes to various target groups. I developed content for training programs and sessions, in addition to which I trained both our volunteers as well as health care professionals. During the project, we planned, developed and launched a website entitled “Suunta”, which aims at supporting the mental well-being of people with coeliac disease. During the first year the website registered over 34.000 visits.

I worked as the project coordinator for a project aiming at enhancing the mental and social well-being of people with coeliac disease. My responsibilities included, for instance, organizing our volunteer activities as well as our project communication to both external and internal stakeholders. Moreover, I was in charge of running a public tender, in which we sought the technical producer for the Suunta-website.

I served as a fixed-term researcher in a research project, which focused on examining the changes that are taking place in small villages and municipal administration within rural communities. During my spell in the project, I collected and analyzed interview data, and also conducted a web-based survey.

I worked as a journalist in two local newspapers in the Tampere region. I planned contents, wrote articles and took photographs for my stories published in both print and online versions. I also took regular shifts as the subeditor. In this role, I was in charge of the whole issue, which included planning the content and ensuring all content was finished on time, organizing and leading the work of the editorial staff as well as conducting the layout.