Throughout my career, I have been interested in the behaviour of people in psychologically and morally difficult situations. This interest has led to a long-term collaboration with people working on the edge. In my earlier career, it has mainly concerned security and medical personnel, but now that life has brought me closer to maritime, I have come to understand that maritime personnel also work very much on the edge every day. I have also realised that it is necessary to expand the concept of morally difficult situations, as they are encountered more and more often in other and at first glance much less risky areas of life, such as public administration and higher education.

As a contracted lecturer and consultant, I contribute to the fields of organisational and business psychology. My lectures and workshops cover topics related to work ethic, performance and social climate, as well as healthy coping in challenging environments and situations.

I have been working within psychology for more than 20 years now. My interest in psychology began largely by chance when my life first took me to military service in 1994. This was the time when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia began to look for its independent identity. I was not a psychologist at the time. This experience seemed confusing and intriguing simultaneously. I found myself asking: who are these people? What makes them join the armed forces? If times were different, would it be different types of people who would be attracted?

The questions stayed with me and after a brief detour through business sciences, I began my studies in psychology. After ten fruitful years at university, my studies led to a unique joint doctorate in Belgium, in organisational psychology and military and social sciences.

For most of my university years, I worked full-time in the Estonian army as a "psychologist in uniform". It was an experience of intense and active learning with the same intense and active practice. The first 4 years, my so-called apprenticeship, took me to practise psychology in a 'boots on the ground' way in different military units. The last 7 years of my military career were more academic, I was teaching military psychology and conducting applied research. During this period my research focused on the role of personal predisposition in adapting to and coping with military missions. I was also actively involved in international collaborations with other researchers internationally. During these years in my career, I have presented at 19 international conferences across the globe, been invited to speak as a keynote speaker 8 times, and have organised 2 international conferences on military psychology in Estonia. My contribution to military research was recognised by the highly acclaimed Harry Greer Award from the Steering Committee of the International Military Testing Association (IMTA).

After satisfying my researcher's curiosity and receiving answers to the most burning questions, I retired from uniformed service and in 2013 switched to private consultancy and academic teaching. Since then, I have lectured internationally as a member of the academic staff of several universities, and also as a contracted trainer-instructor in the subject areas of security-, health- and organisational psychology. I have also continued to consult on personnel selection and mental health projects in Estonian security and health care institutions.

When I started my research career, I was most interested in people's behaviour in harsh and/or morally difficult situations. Most of my research projects focused on organisational performance, staff selection, and staff welfare issues. From the knowledge accumulated during this period, an innovative online human resource management tool is being now developed to support the recruitment and selection of staff and the management of staff wellbeing. Over time, my interest in research has shifted to national resilience and national identity in globalised societies. Being a passionate world traveller myself, the phenomenon of accelerated migration around the world has made me interested in the experiences of different sub-communities in society at large. How do these sub-communities respond to social and political change? How does social and cultural variation in value systems intervene, and how does national identity develop in multinational societies?