Van Hall Larenstein appoints new Food and Dairy Director

Dr J. Woltman Elpers (Josephine) was appointed Director of Food and Dairy and Life Science and Technology (a partnership with NLH/Stenden University of Applied Sciences) as of 1 January 2019. She succeeds former director Wendy Zuidema, who has worked for the Frisian Water Board since May 2018. In the intermediate period, Josephine’s tasks were taken over by interim director Annet van den Broek, who did an excellent job.

Josephine Woltman Elpers will be based in Leeuwarden, but she will also be present in Velp on a regular basis.

Josephine graduated from the University of Groningen. She has extensive experience in training, research and business. She taught at the University of Groningen, the WHU Otto School of Management in Koblenz (Germany) and at the Free University Amsterdam. She was a director at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences from 2013 (Lifelong Learning, Technology and ICT, Honours College). Prior to that, she was department head of Marketing Intelligence at 3M in Germany. Furthermore, she has gained many years of international experience in various roles. In her new post at VHL University of Applied Sciences (VHL), Josephine will mainly focus on the further reinforcement of the collaboration with the field in order to jointly secure a strong position for VHL in sustainable education and applied research.

A number of study programmes, masters and applied research in the field of Food and Dairy thereby fall under Josephine’s responsibility, namely the master programmes for Agricultural Production Chain Management and Innovative Dairy Chain Management, the bachelor programmes for Biology and Medical Laboratory Research, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Chemical Technology, Forensic Laboratory Research, Animal Husbandry & Livestock Farming, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Farming, Environmental Sciences, Horticulture & Arable Farming and Food Technology, and the associate degree programmes for Integral Enforcement Sustainability Law and Food Technology. VHL offers more study programmes in the field of land, water, animals, food and business, and distinguishes itself in the field of sustainability. Both the Executive Board and Josephine are looking forward to the cooperation.