Maja Fjaestad, new expert coordinator at the Centre for Health Crises
Maja Fjaestad is the latest in a line of expert coordinators that have been recruited to the Centre for Health Crises at KI. The LIME-researcher and former under-secretary of state will work in the expert field of policy and preparedness. She looks forward to contributing with a holistic outlook when it comes to health threats.
Maja is a civil engineer specialised in Engineering Physics and a docent in technical and science history at KTH. Since the end of 2022/beginning of 2023, she is affiliated to research at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics at KI. Her previous jobs include a position as under-secretary of state for health and welfare.
Thanks to her background and experience of both Swedish and international research and politics, Maja will contribute with new, horizontal perspective to the Centre for Health Crises’ work to build the next generation of health crises experts, through education, research, and collaboration. As under-secretary of state during the COVID-19 pandemic she has unique knowledge of the challenges, difficulties, and solutions, to how a society handles a health crisis.
Expert coordinators on different topics
The Centre for Health Crises’ expert coordinators operate within various fields, which are all relevant for the wider topic of health crises. They also collaborate when it comes to common factors and aspects of any crises. The coordinators remain active in their day-to-day positions and fields of work, in research, education, clinical work and much more. This allows them to maintain a firm connection to their field of expertise, which at the same time allows the Centre for Health Crises to act as KI’s networking node and provide relevant and updated external monitoring for the university’s management.
Health Crises always occur in a context
Maja is happy to once again be working in research, and to join the Centre for Health Crises, which she believes may lead to many new opportunities.
“Crises occur in relation to the societal structure that they occur in. In much the same way, preparedness is built in a democratic and socio-political context. I really appreciate the Centre for Health Crises’ ambition to think and act holistically when it comes to health threats, and I look forward to contributing with a strategic view on systems and to the discussion on increased preparedness. I also look forward to continuing to analyse what the universities’ role should be before, during and after health crises”, says Maja Fjaestad.