Advisory Council
Tony Bates
Dr Tony Bates is one of the world’s leading authorities on distance education and online learning, with a career spanning more than four decades as a researcher, lecturer, university administrator and consultant.
He was a founding member of the Open University in the UK, where in 1984 he was appointed Research Professor in Educational Media. In 1989, he took up the post of Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Information Technology at the Open Education Agency in Vancouver, and between 1995 and 2003 he headed the distance learning and technology department at the University of British Columbia.
He has subsequently served as a senior adviser to the Chang School of Continuing Education at Toronto Metropolitan University, a research associate at Contact North (Ontario) and a consultant on the implementation of the online learning strategy at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Between 2018 and 2022, he chaired the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association for Research in Digital Learning.
Through Tony Bates Associates Ltd., he has advised more than fifty institutions in over forty countries, as well as organisations such as UNESCO and the World Bank.
He is the author of several internationally recognised works, including Teaching in a Digital Age, an open-access handbook on teaching in the digital age aimed at lecturers, which has been viewed over a million times and translated into ten languages.
His career also has a special connection with Spain: he was closely associated with the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), where he held the research chair in e-learning. In 2005, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his leadership in the application of technology to higher education.
Philip Geister
Philip Geister, S.J., is the principal of the Newman Institute in Uppsala (Sweden), a Jesuit university offering interdisciplinary programmes in theology, philosophy and cultural studies. Since the institute’s foundation in 2001, he has played a key role in its academic development and in defining its strategic direction. He also chairs the Kircher Network, the network of Jesuit higher education institutions in Europe and the Middle East, and sits on the board of directors of the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU).
He arrived in Sweden in 1991 to undertake doctoral studies in religious studies and philosophy at Uppsala University, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1996. He teaches Systematic Theology and his main areas of research are eschatology, Christology, post-Vatican II Catholic theology and the relationship between theology and environmental issues. His publications include a doctoral thesis on the eschatology of Karl Rahner, the book A God for the Living: An Introduction to Christian Eschatology (2023), and numerous articles and book chapters.
Between 1996 and 2018, he served on the editorial board of Signum, a leading interdisciplinary Catholic journal, to which he regularly contributed essays, reviews and theological commentaries.
Keshia Pollack
Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH, is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of health policy. She holds the Bloomberg Centennial Chair in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also the school’s twelfth dean and director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Health and Social Policy.
Dr Pollack specialises in developing tools and strategies to integrate a health perspective into all public policies, promoting collaboration across different sectors to create safe, healthy and equitable environments in which people live, work, spend their leisure time and travel.
Throughout her career, she has led numerous research projects funded by public bodies and philanthropic foundations, published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles and reports, and contributed to the advancement of public health through leadership roles in various organisations within the sector. In 2023, she was elected a member of the US National Academy of Medicine.
Nancy Tuchman
Nancy C. Tuchman, PhD, is the founding dean of the School of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago, where she has recently brought to a close an academic career spanning almost four decades. Under her leadership, numerous interdisciplinary Bachelor's Degree and postgraduate programmes in environmental sciences and sustainability were launched, significantly expanding the teaching staff and the number of enrolled students.
She also championed an experiential, problem-solving approach to learning through a range of flagship programmes. These included an initiative to produce biodiesel from used vegetable oil collected from Campus cafés to fuel the university’s buses, and an urban agriculture programme.
In addition to spearheading the creation of the School of Environmental Sustainability, his 23 years of leadership played a decisive role in enabling Loyola University Chicago to achieve carbon neutrality and become one of the most sustainable universities in the United States.
Her research focuses on the effects of human activity on the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. Throughout her career, she has led or co-led nearly a hundred research projects carried out by undergraduate and postgraduate students. In 2023, she was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Freshwater Sciences, in recognition of her scientific contributions to the study of lakes, rivers and wetlands, as well as her leadership in environmental sustainability within higher education.
Following her retirement, she began collaborating with the Secretariat for Higher Education of the Society of Jesus. In this capacity, she supports the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) in promoting the development of environmental sustainability plans at Jesuit universities worldwide and in incorporating environmental education into their academic programmes. Since January 2026, he has been carrying out this work at Jesuit universities in Spain, with a particular focus on Loyola University Andalusia.
Bernardo Villazán Gil
Bernardo Villazán Gil is an engineer and executive with extensive experience in the technological, industrial and academic sectors.
He holds a degree in electromechanical industrial engineering from the Higher Technical School of Engineering (ICAI) at Comillas Pontifical University. He completed his training with the Senior Management Program (PADE) at the IESE Business School and obtained certifications in Corporate Governance (IC-A) and as an Independent Director from the ICADE Business School.
Throughout his career, he has held senior management positions in multinational companies in the technology and industrial sectors, overseeing operations in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and India.
His management style has been characterised by a strong focus on operational excellence, systematically integrating occupational health and safety and the prevention of workplace risks into the strategy of the organisations he has led. His leadership in sectors such as defence, telecommunications and heavy industry has been marked by a strong commitment to the highest safety standards and to the protection of people.
He has also served as an independent director on the boards of leading organisations and listed companies in Europe and the United States.
With a particular interest in the challenges and opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, he remains firmly committed to exploring the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in education. He is currently co-director of the Smart Industry Chair and director of the Master’s in Smart Industry at the Higher Technical School of Engineering (ICAI) of Comillas Pontifical University.