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Dr. Kokkenen travels around the world to speak to Jewish, Christian and Civic audiences about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and Israel. Fluent in six languages, she is skilled in presenting difficult content in a way that touches hearts and inspires positive action and reconciliation between people and the past. Susanna's message is that although the Holocaust is a particularly Jewish tragedy, the lessons to be learned are universal. We can learn how humans behave in such a crisis, how genocide happens, and how we can heal this and commemorate it. Audiences she addresses come to learn. They leave inspired and equipped. The go out from the encounter changed.

Originally from Finland, Dr. Kokkonen worked at the European Parliament in Brussels and at the Embassy of Finland in Tel Aviv. She received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2004 in Holocaust studies. Her dissertation topic was "Jewish Refugees in Post-War Italy, 1945 - 1951.