After completing primary and secondary education, I started studying special education, switching it later to pedagogy. I completed my studies and received my teacher's diploma. After this, I still felt I wanted to continue my studies, concentrating on Deaf Education, so I studied for an additional year to become a certified teacher of the Deaf.

After completing my studies, I still didn’t feel I wanted to enter working life. I wanted to experience studies abroad and was accepted to the University of Rochester in the state of New York, USA, where I studied for a year. I studied Language development in Deaf children and Sign Language linguistics.

When I returned to Finland, I worked at the Finnish Association of the Deaf, in various positions, for some time. After a while, I felt I wanted to return to my own occupation and took on a position of classroom teacher, teaching Deaf children at a School in Helsinki, Finland.

After some time, the university I had previously studied at contacted me. They asked me to take on the responsibility for planning and implementing a 5-year training programme to train Deaf teachers. After careful consideration, I decided to take on the task and switched jobs in the autumn of 1997. I stayed with the teacher training programme for many years.

Then, the position of Executive Director of the Finnish Association of the Deaf became vacant and after considering, I decided to apply for the position. I was selected. Thus my work at the university ended and I started work as Executive Director in January 2007.

Parallel to my education and career, I have also worked in the field of the Deaf in several positions of trust. I have held the position of President of the Finnish Association of the Deaf for many years, as well as the Vice President of the EUD for many years. Most recently, I was elected President of the World Federation of the Deaf in 2003.

I still also want to pursue my studies and I am currently working on my doctoral dissertation.

For more detailed information on my education and career, please refer to my CV.