Professor Katri Maria Vehvilainen-Julkunen (PhD, Lic in Health, MSc, RN,RM, FEANS) is a professor and chair in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland (UEF).  She is the Director of the Doctoral Programme in Health Science in UEF.  She is a nurse and midwife with MSc in health administration, leadership and nursing.  She holds a secondary appointment in Kuopio University Hospital as a nurse director.

Professor Vehviläinen-Julkunen has a long-lasting researcher and teaching career in nursing and health sciences as well as university level leadership roles in Finland.  Her research interests are on maternal and child health, health services research (care quality and safety, evidence based practice) as well as genomics in nursing with versatile research methodology from qualitative methods to register based studies and use of artificial intelligence.  She has led successfully research projects funded by European Union Horizon 2020, Finnish Academy of Sciences, Business Finland to mention some. In addition, she has gained several teaching grants in Finland as well as from European Union.  She has published in total over 400 publications out of which over 220 international articles, several scientific articles in Finnish and produced books or book chapters (mainly in Finnish) on research methods and family nursing.  Her contributions to nursing and health research have been widely noted through international and national awards and honors.  These include the ‘International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame’ awarded by the Sigma Theta Tau International Honors Society of Nursing in year 2017.  Established in 2010, the Hall of Fame recognizes nurse leaders who have achieved significant international impact for improving the nursing profession and the patients’ care.