Peter Allebeck
Peter Allebeck is professor of Social Medicine at the Department of Public Health Sciences KI, and also has a position at CES, Stockholm County Council. His main area of research is Mental Health and in particular epidemiology of alcohol and substance use. Since 1 January he has a half time position as Secretary General for FORTE, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare.
SPEAKERS
Conference brings together interesting and motivating group of speakers from the field of research, advocacy and governmental institutions. We have asked them to introduce themselves. Here they are!
Thomas F. Babor
Gerard Hastings
Gerard is a Professor at Stirling and the Open University and Professeur Associé at the École des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique in Rennes. He worked in market research before beginning his academic career, which has focused on researching the impact of marketing on society - both for good and ill. This led to the founding of the Institute for Social Marketing and Centre for Tobacco Control Research and has involved him in advising Government and working with policy makers and civil society both nationally and internationally.
For example, Gerard was appointed as a Special Advisor to the House of Commons Health Select Committee during its separate enquiries into the tobacco (2000), food (2004), pharmaceutical (2005), and alcohol industries (2010); he has acted as a Temporary Advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on both communicable and non-communicable disease, and he headed the team that did the world's first systematic review on the impact of food advertising on childhood obesity (later updated twice for the WHO). He has also acted as an expert witness in litigation against the tobacco industry.
Gerard was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2009 for his services to healthcare.
Karl Persson
Sven-Olov Carlsson
I began my career as Municipal Chief Executive and worked for 20 years in this field.
I was the President of IOGT International since 2002 till 2014. I am also a member of the Board of EUROCARE - the European Alcohol Policy Alliance, the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA) and the International Council on Alcohol and Addictions (ICAA).
Between 1995-2009 I was the President of IOGT-NTO in Sweden, an NGO working in the field of alcohol and drug policy and prevention.
In 2009 I was elected International President of World Federation Against Drugs (WFAD), a multilateral community of non-governmental organizations and individuals.
Nijole Goštautaitė Midttun
Nijole Gostautaite Midttun is a psychiatrist and director of the nonprofit organization “Mental health initiative”. She is an active mental health advocate and her work involves research and analysis, training and organization development. She has clinical psychiatry experience in variety of settings in Lithuania and Norway, as well as additional background of health psychology and experience in developing social work programs in Lithuania. She has more than 15 years of training and teaching experience: some of the courses involve Counseling for Health, Team Work in Mental Health, and she has been teaching Health Advocacy in Vilnius University since 2009 in Erasmus Mundus program. Some of the recent projects involve development of the program for mentally ill persons “Parenting for health”, assessment of accessibility program for services for children using psychoactive substances, feasibility of mandatory treatment for dependent persons and alcohol advertisement monitoring. N.G. Midttun is closely involved in alcohol and tobacco control policy as a board member of the Lithuanian Coalition for Tobacco and Alcohol Control and has organized on behalf of NordAN the first seminar on Alcohol marketing monitoring in Vilnius in 2013.
Lauri Beekmann is the Secretary General of NordAN and has been the chairman and executive director of the Estonian Temperance Union (ETU) since 2003.
With a background in journalism, he has worked as a radio editor for 10 years and as an editor of different local magazines and portals. In 2007 he started an alcohol news blog and weekly alcohol-related newsletter – http://alcoholweekly.blogspot.com/. He is also the editor of bimonthly newsletter for the European FASD Alliance network and is currently vice-president of the European Alcohol Policy Alliance (Eurocare) and board member of the Baltic Tobacco and Alcohol Control Coalition (BTACC).
Lauri Beekmann
Dr. Babor spent several years in postdoctoral research training in social psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and subsequently served as head of social science research at McLean Hospital's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center in Belmont, MA. In 1982 he moved to the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He has served as the Scientific Director at the Alcohol Research Center and the interim Chair of the Psychiatry Department before moving to Community Medicine in 1998.
Dr. Babor is head of the Department of Community Medicine and Health Care and directs an active research program. He is also Associate Editor-in-Chief and Regional Editor of the international journal, Addiction
Linda Nilsson
Linda Nilsson is the Secretary General of World Federation on Drugs, an umbrella organization with 150 member organizations all over the world. She is the representative of the global voice of prevention on the Civil Society Task Force, a newly founded Task Force to ensure a meaningful participation of civil society in the lead up to UNGASS 2016. Linda is also active in the network Drug Policy Futures and is one of the editors of the report the network will release in fall 2015.
PhD student, Practical Philosophy, University of Gothenburg. Studied courses and programs at full speed at GU 2002-2008 which, among other things, resulted in two degrees: MA. in Practical Philosophy 2006 and BA. in political science 2007.
Primary areas of interest: free will, moral responsibility and desert.
Working Title of my thesis is “Individual health-individual or societal responsibility? Theoretical analysis and practical decision tools.”
I am also engaged in a project called "The crazy offender and the good society", which is a collaboration between forensic psychiatry and philosophy. For my own part, this collaboration has resulted in a chapter in the book Accountability.
Kristiina Hannula
Kristiina Hannula works as director in EHYT Finnish Association for Substance Abuse Prevention. EHYT operates in the whole Finland and among the entire population to promote healthy ways of life. The work extends from children and young people to working-aged and pension-aged people. In addition to preventive work in alcohol, tobacco and drug-related issues, EHYT promotes a positive culture in digital games and gambling.
Kristiina has studied physical education (master degree), health education and management. She used to work as PE and health education teacher as well as headmaster before she came to the NGO`s world. Among other things Kristiina takes care of The Network of Actors in Preventive Substance Abuse Work in Finland. The network is an open union and there are 36 actors involved. EHYT coordinates the operation of the network and apply for allocated subsidies for the coordination work. So advocacy work has very important role of Kristiina´s work. She is a board member of the Nordic Alcohol and Drug Policy Network.
Maj-Inger Klingvall
Msc Political Science. President WOCAD since 2010. She has a political background, was Member of the Executive Committe, National Federation of Social Democratic Women in Sweden as well as Member of the Executive Committe, Swedish Social Democratic Party. She has been Local Governmental Politician in Norrköping, Member of Parliament, Chair for the Standing Committe on Social Insurance in Parliament, Minister for Social Security and Family Affairs, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Minister of Development Cooperation, Migration and Asylum Policy, Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Ambassador to Mocambique and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Now vice President UNICEF Sweden and Member of CAN Board.
Zaza Tsereteli
Dr Zaza Tsereteli is a public health specialist working for the Norwegian Ministry of health and Care Services. He is seconded to the Northern Dimension Partnership on Health and Social wellbeing (NDPHS) and serving as an International technical Advisor for the Expert Group on Alcohol and Substance Abuse (ASA EG). He is also Coordinator of Barents TB and HIV Programme under the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC).
Zaza has twenty years of senior management experience in Eastern Europe and Nordic countries and is currently based in Estonia. He has extensive experience in heading and supporting projects focussed on Public Health prevention and intervention strategies; he has experience of working at high level with ministries and stakeholders alike; he had provided technical assistance to the Governments of 13 countries, by transferring and exchanging knowledge to country officials, developing capacity in partner institutions, and designing and implementing strategies for supporting the translation of knowledge into practice. In response to demand from partner Countries, he participated in design and delivers training activities, workshops, and senior policy seminars. He has an extensive experience in designing assistance programmes, implementation, monitoring and evaluating of projects related to public health sector
He is a Trustee At-Large of International Association of Provider of AIDS Care (IAPAC) Board of Trustees, Member of EU Think Tank on HIV/AIDS and Tallinn International Rotary Club.
Janne Seppänen
Janne Seppänen is professor on visual journalism at the School of Communication, Media and Theatre, University of Tampere, Finland.
He is a specialist in visual communication and visual methodologies and has, for instance, written the basic academic textbooks on visual culture studies in Finland. He is the author of The power of the Gaze. An introduction to Visual Literacy (Peter Lang, 2006).
Currently, he leads the research consortium Mind, Image, Picture (MIPI) funded by the Academy of Finland. The main objective of the consortium is to answer the question how pictures come meaningful for the viewer. The MIPI is a multidisciplinary project combining media studies, information studies and experimental psychology.
Stig Erik Sørheim
Stig Erik Sørheim is Head of the International Department at Actis – Norwegian Policy Network on Alcohol and Drugs and President of EURAD (Europe for Action on Drugs).Stig Erik earned his Cand. Philol. degree at theUniversityof Oslo. He spent nine years with the Norwegian Directorate for Health as a senior adviser in alcohol and drug policy, public health and health in equalities.He is also on the board of the European Alcohol Policy Alliance and the Nordic Alcohol and Drug Policy Network.
Mariann Skar
Mariann Skar has been the Secretary General for European Alcohol Policy Alliance (Eurocare) since October 2007.
Mariann’s working experience is varied, spanning from being an independent public health consultant in Brussels and Thessaloniki, seconded national expert in the European Commission, Directorate-General Health & Consumer Protection. Previously Mariann was working at Tromsø University College as head of nursing education; teaching in general nursing, sociology/social policies and involved in various developmental, evaluation and research activities.
Romualds Ražuks
Dr.med. Romualds Ražuks is doctor (neurosurgeon), politician, member of the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia, member of the Presidium of the Baltic Assembly.
He is awarded with the Order of Three Stars, Member Mark of Barricades in 1991, Medal of the Baltic Assembly and Gediminas Order of the Republic of Lithuania.
He has studied in Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine, Riga Stradiņš University and Moscow N. Burdenko Neurosurgery Research Institute (degree of Doctor in Medicine).
He has been elected in Saeima for three terms, during 7th Saeima, 11th Saeima and 12th (current) Saeima. He is a member of the Social and Employment Matters Committee and member Parliamentary Inquiry Committee of the Parliament of Latvia.
As a doctor, he has a great practical experience in medicine and extensive understanding in welfare and social matters.
Magnus Jägerskog
Magnus Jägerskog has a master's degree in economics and has been the managing director of IQ since 2011. Magnus has more than 15 years experience in senior positions of advocacy and communication on public health issues and childrens rights issues. Today he is a lecturer and expert on these subjects.