Johanna Zilliacus

Candidate in KI:s Academic Elections – role as dean/deputy dean för higher education

I currently serve as a faculty representative on the Committee for Higher Education (KU) and have held this position for two terms. Within KU, I have also had a complementary assignment with responsibility for the ongoing work related to the quality assurance system for education. In this role, I have, among other things, developed and implemented KI’s system for external, regular reviews of educational programmes. Through my assignments in the Council for Systematic Quality Work (RSK) and the Reading and Review Group (LÄGG), I have also gained broad experience in quality assurance across all parts of KI’s operations.

I have extensive experience in leading education at both departmental and course levels. Since 2013, I have been Departmental Director of Education (GUA) at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, which is responsible for two programmes and 29 courses within seven different programmes. I have more than 30 years of experience in teaching at undergraduate, master and doctoral levels and have served as course director and examiner for more than 30 different courses. In addition, I have carried out pedagogical development work at both course and programme level, at KI and internationally.

As Dean/Deputy Dean, I want to build on the strong work that has been carried out in KU in recent years. Important issues going forward include:

• Creating good career opportunities for teachers who take significant responsibility for education.
• Developing and maintaining KI’s quality assurance system for education so that our courses and programmes maintain high quality and we are well prepared for UKÄ’s review of the quality system in 2026–2027.
• Ensuring that clinical placements (VFU) within Region Stockholm and the municipalities maintain high quality and that there are sufficient places for our students.
• Making sure that our education is prepared to meet the demands of responsible internationalisation and crisis preparedness in a changing world.
• Giving our students the opportunity to learn to use AI responsibly and preparing them for a working life where AI competence will become increasingly important.

I have conducted research in molecular endocrinology and currently focus on developing methodologies for health risk assessment of chemicals, including endocrine disruptors and chemical mixtures.

I have over 30 years of experience teaching university students at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. I have served as course director and examiner for more than 30 courses and have actively contributed to pedagogical development initiatives at both course and programme levels, at KI and internationally. In 2013, I was appointed as a member of the Pedagogic Academy at Karolinska Institutet. I have designed international training courses and coordinated projects focused on training in health risk assessment. Additionally, I am a member of the EUROTOX Educational Subcommittee and serve as co-chair of the WHO Steering Group for Capacity Building within the Chemical Risk Assessment Network.