"My professional dream is to bridge the gap between research and practice by making knowledge about the social and organizational work environment easily accessible. This way, employees and managers in workplaces can understand fundamental dynamics and navigate, thereby avoiding work-related stress, serious conflicts, bullying, and preventing both physical and psychological work injuries. I wish for Denmark to create frameworks for work that enable us to achieve important local as well as global goals and make a real positive difference for each other and the planet."

Primary research areas:

Work & Organizational Psychology

• Prevention and treatment of stress
• Work-related mental disorders, including work-related stress
• Work injury reports in the Danish work injury system
• Evidence-based stress treatment
• Return to work after sick leave
• Prevention of workplace stress, including the role of leaders and elected representatives
• Leaders' handling of long-term sick leave
• Ageism, intergenerational climate and aging in the workplace

Leadership experience and employment:

2023- present       External lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen

Teaching in Work & Organizational Psychology. Interventions for well-being promotion, collaboration, and productivity, as well as prevention of stress and systematic handling of problematic psychosocial work environment, stress treatment, and return to work after sick leave.

2023- present       Director of Development at Necto

Necto is a non-profit charitable organization aimed at improving mental health for employees and leaders in Danish workplaces through innovative experimental and research-based approaches. www.necto.info 

2018– 2023: Researcher, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen (part-time)

• Responsible for organizing and hosting the annual Stress Conference (2016-2020)
• Postdoctoral researcher on the research project about Ageism, Intergenerational Work Climate, and Healthy Aging, in collaboration with several researchers. Funded by the Nordea Foundation 2019-2023
• Member of the KU Research Center - Center for Healthy Aging https://sundaldring.ku.dk/
• Teaching in Work & Organizational Psychology - lectures and elective courses
• Dissemination of research on psychosocial work environment to the public, member of various working groups, etc.

2020– 2023: Director of Business & Economics at the Mental Health Foundation www.fondenmentalsundhed.dk

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Strategy, sales, fundraising, stakeholder involvement
  Development of courses, education, and the Stress Conference 2020-2023
• Daily management including prioritization, and distribution of work, role and expectation alignment, APV process, ensuring well-being and job satisfaction.
• Negotiations and contracts, both internal and external, including suppliers and customers, and customer and supplier relations
• Financial management of 3 companies (Foundation, Holding, and ApS), including the establishment and implementation of procedures in collaboration with accountants and auditing firms.
• Corporate governance in collaboration with the CEO.
• Social investments - innovative models for scaling and financing, in collaboration with the CEO, economist, the Social Investment Fund, and the Social Capital Fund.
• Communication - Social Media, website, PR, and visibility.
• Establishment of systematic data collection via SurveyXact, Enalyzer, E-boks, MITID validation, etc. GDPR compliance, including the establishment and management of GDPR systems.

Professional development of:

Scientific development of programs, teaching materials, testing, data collection, and evaluations, as well as train-the-trainer initiatives

Stress reduction programs

• Sustainable leadership - Stress prevention for leaders in 5 weeks
• Sustainable Work Life - Stress prevention for employees in 5 weeks
• Online courses/e-learning - Open and Calm Work Life and Open and Calm Online (used in several municipalities and workplaces)
• Smutud.dk - online universe for moving office work outside.
• Blended Care programs - a combination of online courses and group sessions, including the development of Open and Calm - Short Course (used in several municipalities), online courses, and short online sessions used in organizations like Dansk Magisterforening and HK.
• Lectures and workshops to enhance well-being and prevent stress in organizations.
• Development of products, e.g., videos, website (www.smutud.dk), Guide for a successful return to work after stress-related sick leave, Sustainable Leadership - a handbook for leaders.

2018-20: Head of Business Initiatives, Center for Mental Health Promotion

• Fundraising and sales - including sales to municipalities with presentations to political committees, business cases, etc.
• Development of intervention programs, services, and products - described above, later became part of the Mental Health Foundation.
• Strategic leadership and operations. Responsible for several consultants and research assistants.
• Budget management and preparation of budgets for foundation applications.

2016-2023: Independent Consultant

Conducting lectures, workshops, and consulting work for labor unions regarding strategic work environment initiatives and the development of psychosocial services in collaboration with social partners, private companies on leadership training, cooperation projects, etc. Teaching lawyers at the Insurance Academy. Teaching supervisors from Myanmar, Vietnam, and Bangladesh in psychosocial work environment (a course via the Danish Working Environment Authority, Aalborg University, and Danida).

2016: Guest Researcher at the National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA)

2013-2018: Project Manager and Ph.D. Student, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen

Project manager in the 'Workers Compensation System Project' funded by the Work Environment Research Foundation (developed and fundraised the project independently). Collaboration with key stakeholders, e.g., the Danish Workers Compensation System including - Injury Insurance, occupational medicine clinics, the Danish Working Environment Authority, social partners, municipalities, researchers from Aalborg University, Bispebjerg Hospital, Biostatistics KU, Linköping University, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Law KU, etc.

2010-2013: Psychologist and Researcher at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital

Worked on a randomized clinical trial/research project funded by the Tryg Foundation, testing the effects of different types of stress treatment in collaboration with research leader Dr. Bo Netterstrøm.
Responsible for designing and conducting a sub-project exploring what happens in workplaces when employees go on sick leave due to stress, funded by the Work Environment Research Foundation.
Worked on recruitment, fundraising for the project, obtaining approvals from data protection authorities and ethics committees, research design, interviews, development of questionnaires, analysis, scientific publications, and dissemination of research results.

2006-2007: Researcher at Recruiters - Recruitment

Worked with recruitment and research

Academic degrees:

2018: Ph.D. in Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen.

Dissertation: Work-related mental disorders - A quantitative and qualitative investigation of employees' and managers' experiences at the workplace and in the Workers' Compensation System.

2009: Master's degree in Psychology, Aalborg University

Professional development (selected):

2018: Certified Open & Calm Instructor. Center for Mental Health Promotion. Specialist-approved education in the Danish Psychological Association.

2013-2018: Ph.D. education - 30 ECTS points in courses such as research methods, design, ethics, teaching, and dissemination as part of the Ph.D. education.

2016-2018: Work Disability Prevention - A 3-year international interdisciplinary research program with participants from 22 countries - at NIVA Education.

2013: Certified NLP Coach, NLP House

2013: Evidence-based Stress Treatment at Grow People. Specialist-approved education in the Danish Psychological Association.

2010: Project Management Training, Niels Brock University