The university board is a university’s highest decision-making body. Under the Higher Education Act, the board shall “supervise all of its [the university’s] operations and assume responsibility for the fulfilment of its mandate“.
Presentation of board members
Lars Haikola, former chancellor of the Swedish Higher Education Authority
He defended his doctoral thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein in philosophy of religion in 1977.
Lars Haikola’s first managerial role was as head of the School of Theology at Lund University. Later he was appointed vice-chancellor of the Teacher Training College in Malmö and then as vice-chancellor at Blekinge Institute of Technology and Campus Helsingborg (Lund University).
He led the merger of Växjö University and the University of Kalmar, which today form Linnaeus University. Between 2010–2014, Lars Haikola was chancellor and head of the Swedish Higher Education Authority. Born in 1947.
Åke Ingerman is professor of science and technology education.
He has a Degree of Master of Science in Engineering Physics from Chalmers University of Technology. He obtained his PhD in physics with an education specialisation in 2002 and was appointed professor at the University of Gothenburg in 2011.
Åke Ingerman’s research focuses, among other things, on the relationship between teaching and learning in science, technology, and mathematics. The majority of the studies he has led have been practice-based classroom studies in collaboration with teachers, from primary school to university level, with an important aim of contributing concrete knowledge that can improve teaching.
His own teaching has recently been mainly at the doctoral level, but he has previously taught physics and mathematics – in teacher education and on courses in higher education pedagogy.
Between 2015 and 2024, Åke Ingerman was dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Gothenburg. He has been a visiting researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Born in 1973.
Representatives of public interests
Jonas Albertson, CTO, Epiroc Group and CEO, Epiroc Rock Drills AB
Jonas Albertson has an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology. A member of Epiroc’ group management since 2020, he has previously had several leading positions at Atlas Copco. Jonas Albertson lives in Örebro. Born in 1967.
Cissi Billgren Askwall is Director of the Stockholm Diocese. She was previously coordinator of a national platform for research news and communication at the Swedish Research Council.
She has also held the position as secretary general of Public & Science Sweden, VA, a non-profit membership organisation promoting dialogue and openness between researchers and the public, head of communications at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a news journalist.
Cissi Billgren Askwall is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry’s. She was born in 1966.
Photo: Gustaf Waesterberg
Anna Felländer is an economist and one of Sweden’s leading experts on artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on the economic, societal, legal, and ethical implications of AI.
Anna holds a Master’s degree in Business and Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. She has worked as an economist at the Swedish Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister’s Office, and previously served as Chief Economist at Swedbank. She has also been an affiliated researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, where she established an interdisciplinary research group on responsible AI. This work laid the foundation for Asenion, a company she co-founded and where she currently leads the European office.
Anna has extensive board experience across large corporations, start-ups, public authorities, and academia. In addition, she has acted as an advisor to Sweden’s Minister for Digitalisation and to Members of the European Parliament on matters relating to AI ethics.
Lisa Månsson is director general of the Swedish Museum of Natural History.
The Swedish Museum of Natural History is a government authority under the Ministry of Culture and one of Sweden’s largest museums, with extensive research activities. Lisa Månsson is a researcher by training but has held leading positions in museum and science centre organisations for over a decade. From 2015 to 2020, she was museum director of the Vasa Museum – the most visited museum in Scandinavia. Between 2010 and 2015, she held various leadership roles at the science centre Tom Tits Experiment. Lisa Månsson serves on several boards, including the Swedish Museums Association and the European science museum network Ecsite.
Lisa Månsson holds a PhD in infection biology from Karolinska Institutet and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Photo: Bengt Olofsson
Sari Ponzer is senior professor of orthopaedic surgery at Karolinska Institutet.
She has been the Head of Department of Orthopaedics, the Head of Department of Emergency and the Director of research, education, development and innovation at Södersjukhuset Hospital, Stockholm. She retired 2025 from all hospital duties.
Sari Ponzer has been involved in the reform of both the undergraduate medical programme and the nursing programme at Karolinska Institutet. She has led several pedagogical projects and has worked as a lecturer, supervisor, and course director within undergraduate medical education. She has held various leading posts at Karolinska Institutet, among them Dean of Education. Her current research focuses on orthopaedics and medical education.
Sari Ponzer obtained her nursing degree in Helsinki in 1978, her medical degree in 1986 at Karolinska Institutet, and was appointed professor of orthopaedic surgery at Karolinska Institutet in 2007. Born in 1956.
Oddrun Samdal, professor at the University of Bergen, Norway
Oddrun Samdal obtained her PhD in 1999 and since 2007, she is professor of health promotion and health psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway. Her research interests include school as pupils’ work environment, health promotion at school, and physical activity in children and adolescents. Born in 1967.
Photo: Eivind Senneset
Mats Tysklind, professor of environmental chemistry at Umeå University
Mats Tysklind is professor at the Department of Chemistry at Umeå University. His research is focused on the environmental behaviour of both legacy and new pollutants. Special research interests include contamination of soil and water, and he also studies the transportation, transformation and biological uptake of environmental pollutants in various organisms. Born in 1956.
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
Faculty representatives
Erik Sjöstedt is lecturer at the School of Science and Technology. His academic focus is botany, plant physiology and zoology. He has been involved in developing the biology components of the Early Years and Primary Education Programmes as well as the Subject Teacher Education Programme in biology. Research-wise, Erik Sjöstedt is involved in a study on how students approach and view the subject of technology.
Katja Boersma is Professor of Psychology and a member of the Center for Health and Medical Psychology (CHAMP). She received a masters in psychology from Groningen University (major in clinical-, minor in social psychology) in the Netherlands in 1998, and is a licensed psychologist in Sweden since 2001. She is employed at Örebro University since January 2007.
Katja's main research interests concern the fields of health psychology and revolve around understanding the role of psychological processes in the experience of persistent pain and its potentially negative consequences. Katja's main teaching responsibilities are within the psychology program at Örebro University.
Christina Karlsson is licensed Biomedical Scientist and Senior Lecturer at the Unit for Medical Diagnostics, Department of Health Sciences PhD from Örebro University in 2011 with the thesis “Biomarkers in non-small cell lung carcinoma: methodological aspects and influence of gender, histology and smoking habits on estrogen receptor and epidermal growth factor family receptor signalling.”
Christina's research focuses primarily on biological and prognostic factors in tumor disease development, and she has led and participated in projects on lung cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, and endometrial cancer. Since 2014, Christina has been the programme director for the Biomedical Scientist program.
Louise Pålsson has been the university director at Örebro University since September 2014. As university director, she reports directly to the vice-chancellor and is responsible for the university’s joint administration and support operations and their development. The university director is part of the university’s management team which consists of the vice-chancellor, the deputy vice-chancellor and the university director.
