PUBLIC HEALTH PALLIATIVE CARE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
Executive Members
President – Prof Luc Deliens (Belgium)
Vice President - Dr Kerrie Noonan (Australia)
Treasurer – Dr Emma Hodges (UK)
General Secretary - Dr Bert Quintiens (Belgium)
Membership Secretary – Saif Mohammed (India)
General Council Members
Bonnie Tompkins (Canada)
Dr Daniel Lowrie (Australia)
Elizabeth Johnson (USA)
Dr Esther Nafula (Kenya)
Dr Guy Peryer (UK)
Dr Max Kleijberg (Sweden)
Ex officio members
Journal Representative - A/Prof Libby Sallnow.
EAPC PHPC Representative - Dr Steven Vanderstichelen
IAHPC Representative - Natalie Greaves
WHPCA Representative - Dr Stephen Connor
Executive Members
prof luc deliens - President
Luc Deliens has a background in sociology and is a professor in palliative care research at the VUB Brussels and Ghent University in Belgium, and founding director of the VUB Brussels & Ghent University based interdisciplinary End-of-Life Care Research Group (EOLC). With over 50 researchers this EOLC group is one of the largest multidisciplinary research teams in the domain of palliative care in Europe. He is co-chairing the Reference Group on Public Health Palliative Care of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) in Europe. Luc is also the Associate-Editor of our journal Palliative Care & Social Practice. In 2022, he organized with his team also the PHPCI7 international conference in Bruges, Belgium.
DR Kerrie Noonan - Vice President
Dr Kerrie Noonan is a clinical psychologist and social researcher. She is the director of The Death Literacy Institute and Director of Research at Western NSW Local Health District. She holds several appointments, including an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Public Health Palliative Care Unit at La Trobe University and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Psychology, Western Sydney University. She is a co-author of the Death Literacy Index and has contributes to compassionate communities and death literacy work nationally and internationally. Kerrie has served on the council since 2015 and was the co-chair of the PHPC International conference in 2019 in the Blue Mountains, Australia.
Dr Emma Hodges - Treasurer
Dr Bert Quintiens - General secretary
Dr Bert Quintiens has a background in nursing and has worked for several years as both a nurse and a clinical trial coordinator. He has a PhD in social health sciences. His research revolved around the development and evaluation of two Compassionate Cities.
He is a postdoc researcher, coordinator at the Compassionate Communities Centre of Expertise (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and general secretary at Public Health Palliative Care International. He coordinates learning networks on Compassionate Communities & Compassionate Schools.
Saif Mohammed - Membership Secretary
Mr. Saif embarked on his palliative care journey as a volunteer coordinator for a community-led initiative in his locality. He holds the distinction of being the first State Project Manager for Palliative Care in Kerala under the National Health Mission. In this role, he spearheaded efforts to integrate palliative care programs into primary healthcare institutions, empowered Local Self-Governments to organize palliative care initiatives, and facilitated specialized palliative care programs in secondary and tertiary hospitals.
Saif played a supportive role in formulating the palliative care policy for the Government of Kerala. Additionally, he served as the State Coordinator of the palliative care program under the Additional Skill Acquisition program of the Government of Kerala. As one of the founding members of the 'Students Initiative in Palliative Care' (SIPC), he contributes to empowering youth in palliative care, particularly in providing psycho-social support to individuals with palliative care needs.
In his diverse experience, Saif also served as the former CEO of a UNICEF-supported organization, Mission Better Tomorrow. Currently, as a Faculty Member at the Institute of Palliative Medicine, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Community-Based Palliative Care Services, he leads teaching sessions in palliative care and actively participates in implementing the Bereavement Companionship Programme and organizing Death Cafes.
General Council Members
Bonnie Tompkins (canada)
Bonnie Tompkins holds a Bachelor of Public Health specialising in Palliative Care. She works at Pallium Canada as the Compassionate Communities National Lead focusing on mobilising Compassionate Communities (CC) across Canada. She has lead two compassionate community initiative in Burlington and Niagara West Ontario, Canada. She sits on the steering committee for the Ontario Caregivers Coalition, contributor to CancerandWork.ca, piloting undergrad certification regarding the palliative care approach and CC with Brock University, and collaborates with colleagues around the world. Her interest in palliative care developed through personal experiences as a caregiver to her late partner who died while completing her BPH.
dr Daniel Lowrie - (Australia)
Daniel Lowrie is an occupational therapist with a clinical background in cancer care and palliative care. Daniel is a Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. Daniel’s Masters research explored patient empowerment in cancer palliative care and his PhD study examined the process of role change and associated shifts in role relations at end of life. He also has experience in the design and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate Allied Health education concerning end-of-life care.
Elizabeth Johnson (USA)
Elizabeth Johnson has a master's degree in Community and Urban Planning. Her professional work has taken her around the globe, awakening a fascination with the cultural and social contexts which shape human understandings of illness and death. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Peaceful Presence Project, a community based organization in Oregon, USA. The nonprofit’s mission is to reimagine and transform the way communities talk about, plan for and experience the last stage of life. As an end-of-life doula and educator, she provides trainings to improve community and profession-based death and grief literacy. She also facilitates proactive planning support for advanced illness care, as well as compassionate bedside presence for people navigating a terminal illness. She is a graduate of the 2-year ‘Anamcara Project,’ with a focus on the spirituality of grief and loss. She is a certified ACP educator for the Institute on HealthCare Directives, a certified pregnancy loss group facilitator, and a member of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Illness Care.
Esther Nafula (kenya)
I am a Palliative Care Specialist based at the Kenyatta National Hospital where I head the Pain & Palliative Care Unit. I am very passionate about palliative care and I am actively involved in making services and education available in Kenya. I have vast experience working in various set ups, hoapital community and hospices. I am a fellow of the Institute of Palliative Medicine, Kerala. I hold a Master of Science and Diploma for Higher Education in Palliative Care from the Oxford Brookes University. I also hold a Certificate in Teaching and Learning for Higher Education from the same University and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Nairobi. My roles include clinical care of patients and families, teaching in various palliative care programs for health care providers and advocating for availability of opioid analgesics.I am passionate about making palliative care services available to vulnerable groups including children and persons living with disability . I am a member of the board of trustees of the International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN).
DR GUY PERYER (UK)
Guy is a Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia, UK. He is a Chartered Psychologist and a Chartered Scientist. His PhD is in Human Factors from the University of Bristol, UK. He has experience working for the National Institute for Health and Care Research [NIHR] Design Service and leads the Compassionate Communities theme for the NIHR East of England Applied Research Collaboration. Guy is undertaking an NIHR Advanced Fellowship [2023-2027] studying strategies for expanding death literacy across non-clinical community networks.
Max Kleijberg (Sweden)
Max Kleijberg is a postdoctoral researcher at Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) and process leader for equity in cancer care at the Regional Cancer Centre Stockholm-Gotland (Sweden). He has a background in design and healthcare science with a PhD from Karolinska Institutet. His research takes a transdisciplinary approach to health equity and health promotion in relation to aging, severe illness, and the end-of-life. Through participatory action research he partners with community and healthcare stakeholders to collaboratively develop knowledge and create meaningful change. He leads several research projects, including research addressing cancer disparities based on socioeconomic conditions in Sweden; LGBTQ+ perspectives on aging, severe illness, and the end-of-life; improving cervical screening for transgender people.
Ex officio members
A/Prof Libby Sallnow - JOURNAL REP (Palliative Care & Social Practice)
A/Prof Libby Sallnow is a palliative medicine consultant with CNWL NHS Trust in London, UK and an honorary senior lecturer at St Christopher's Hospice and the UCL Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, UK. She has helped lead and develop the fields of new public health approaches to end of life care, compassionate communities and social approaches to death, dying and loss over the past two decades in the UK and internationally. Her PhD explored the translation of a model of compassionate communities from Kerala, India to London, UK. She has published over 25 articles and book chapters in these fields and co-edited the book "International perspectives on public health and palliative care" in 2011. She is an Honorary Consultant at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Palliative Care in Kerala, India, the President of the Palliative Care Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, UK, a post-doc researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium and editor-in-chief at the SAGE journal Palliative Care and Social Practice.
Dr Stephen connor - WHPCA REPRESENTATIVE
Dr Stephen R. Connor is the Executive Director of the London, UK based Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), an alliance of over 460 national and regional hospice and palliative care organizations in over 100 countries. Dr. Connor has worked continuously in the hospice/palliative care movement since 1975 including leading four US Hospice Programs, 10 years as vice-president of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (US), and seven years as international palliative care consultant for Open Society Foundations. He is now focused on palliative care development internationally with the WHPCA and has worked on palliative care globally in 30 countries over 22 years. He is a hospice and association executive, a health services researcher, educator, advocate, and psychotherapist, licensed as a clinical psychologist with over 20 years of clinical experience. He is on multiple boards and serves on several technical working groups for the WHO. Dr Connor has published over 175 peer reviewed journal articles, & book chapters and is the author/editor of six books on palliative care.
Steven Vanderstichelen - EAPC PHPC Representative
Steven Vanderstichelen (MSc, PhD) is the research coordinator of the Compassionate Communities center of expertise (COCO), FWO senior postdoctoral fellow working at the End-of-Life Care Research Group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) & Ghent University, and Secretary and Steering Committee Member of the European Association for Palliative Care’s Reference Group on Public Health and Palliative Care.
He obtained his Master’s degree in Sociology at Ghent University in 2014 and obtained his PhD in Social Health Sciences in 2019. His main research interests are public health approaches to palliative care, volunteering in end-of-life care, compassionate communities, schools and workplaces, and death literacy.