Kirsti Lonka has been Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, since 2005. She is also Extraordinary Professor at the Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, Vanderbiljpark, South Africa, and member of the Advisory Board of the Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
She is currently working on innovation in higher education and in engaging learning environments (ELA).
She has been a founding member of the Teachers’ Academy of the University of Helsinki since 2013 and also their first president (2013-2014). She is also director of the Research Group of Educational Psychology and the Principal Investigator of the project "Mind the Gap - between digital natives and educational practices", funded by the Mind Program of the Academy of Finland (2013-2016).
Her latest projects are 3Spaces, Sustainable Education Design and Engaging Working Culture. She was previously involved in the learning environments study, the RYM Indoor Environment project, from 2011 to2015.
She was also Vice Dean of the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences at the University of Helsinki (2011-2013), Foreign Adjunct Professor at the Department of LIME, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (2007-2011), and Visiting Professor, University of Groningen, the Netherlands (2007-2008).
She has also worked as the director of the Development and Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, and as professor of Medical Education at the University of Helsinki. Under her management, the medical programme underwent changes to include problem-based work.
Kirsti Lonka is a popular keynote speaker around the world. She has published numerous articles, conference papers and book chapters. She has also published numerous text books and popular writings. Her specialities are higher education, medical education, teacher education, and postgraduate education. In the area of academic writing, her work has focused around conceptions of writing, note-taking, the writing process and writing across the curriculum to develop writing as a learning tool.
Professor Lonka is active on social media: @kirstilonka (Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.