Prof. Joachim Cohen, MSc, PhD, is a social health scientist and a professor of the End-of-Life Care Research Group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
In the research group he is chairing a research program public health and palliative care.
He graduated in 2001 as a Master in Sociology and in 2007 as a PhD in Social Health Sciences.
Prof. Joachim Cohen is a medical sociologist and a professor of the End-of-Life Care Research Group of Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His program of research focuses on end-of-life care and related issues or trends.
His research has been awarded with the Kubler Ross Award for Young Researchers and the Young Investigator Award from the European Association of Palliative Care 2010. Both prizes were awarded to him, mainly because of his large-scale population-based and population-level cross-national research on end-of-life care.
Prof. Cohen has published over 150 articles in international peer reviewed journals, co-edited the Oxford University Press book: “A public health perspective on end of life care”.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joachim-Cohen
https://www.endoflifecare.be/joachim-cohen

MSc, MA, PhD - Sociologist

Prof Luc Deliens, PhD in Health Sciences, MA in Sociology and MSc in Human Ecology, is professor of Palliative Care Research at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care of Ghent University as well as at the Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Since 2000, he is the founding Director of the End-of-Life Care Research Group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University, in Belgium (www.endoflifecare.be).

Internationally, he is chairing the Reference Group on Public Health and Palliative Care of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC)( https://www.eapcnet.eu/eapc-groups/reference/public-health) and is Co-Chair of the EAPC Research Network (https://www.eapcnet.eu/research/research-network). Between 2000 and 2014 he was also Professor of Public Health and Palliative Care at the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University medical center in Amsterdam and founding chair of the Palliative Care Center of Expertise Amsterdam. He is associate editor or advisor for many international journals, e.g. Palliative Medicine, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Palliative Care and Social Practice, BMC Geriatrics; and grants agencies and science foundations, e.g. the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZONMW) and German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

His work has been supported by grants from the EU FP5 to H2020, FWO Research Foundation - Flanders, IWT the Flemish Government Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology, KoTK Cancer Society of Flanders, DWTC the Belgian Federal Ministry of Science Policy, the Department of Science Policy of the Brussels Government, VWS the Dutch Ministry of Public Health, ZONMW the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, OZR Research Fund of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BOF Research Fund of Ghent University, King Baudouin Foundation and other leading medical and health charities.

Prof Luc Deliens has published more than 500 papers and book chapters, many in high impact journals or by leading publishing companies. He received several prestigious scientific awards for his work and in 2009, he became the first member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium to represent palliative care and end-of-life care in the Academy.

https://www.endoflifecare.be/luc-deliens

Dr. Barbara Pesut is a Professor in the School of Nursing at UBC’s Okanagan campus, and she currently holds the Principal Research Chair (Tier 1) in Palliative and End of Life Care. Her research interests include palliative care, rural and remote care, and medical assistance in dying. Her program of research focuses on: (1) finding innovative ways to enhance the care of older adults living with serious illness; and (2) the provision of spiritual and religious care for diverse populations in healthcare. My team is committed to building community capacity and partnerships. We work with community-based groups and organizations across BC & Canada using community-based, participatory-action research. Barb’s nursing clinical background was in palliative and critical care. During her spare time, Barb enjoys skiing, riding and hiking with her dog, Ellie.

Barbara Pesut is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Health, Ethics and Diversity at the University of British Columbia. She practiced nursing in a variety of areas including critical care and paediatric oncology, before transitioning to nursing education. Barbara served as the Department Chair of the Nursing Education program at Trinity Western University for six years and has worked on a variety of Provincial Nursing Educational Initiatives. She earned her undergraduate degree in nursing at the University of Victoria, and her Masters and PhD in Nursing at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include rural and remote palliative care, and spirituality/religion/culture in health care.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barbara-Pesut
https://www.cfn-nce.ca/bio/pesut-barbara/
https://pesut-lab.sites.olt.ubc.ca/profiles/

Holly Prince is an Anishinaabekwe and a member of Opwaaganisiniing in Northwestern Ontario. Holly leads the Indigenous Peoples' Health and Aging Division at Lakehead University's Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health, where she has devoted the last 20 years to advancing the right of Indigenous peoples' access to culturally appropriate and equitable palliative care. Holly has mobilized her efforts as a national champion of human rights and dignity for people at the end of life.

https://wxnetwork.com/page/BioCEDI-HollyPrince

Dr Libby Sallnow is a palliative medicine consultant and academic. 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.

Alongside her role with UCL Division of Psychiatry, Dr Sallnow is an Honorary Consultant at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Palliative Care in Kerala, India, a guest professor in the End-of-Life Care Research Group at the Vrije Universtieit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium and the first author of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death: bringing death back into life (2022). She works as a community-based palliative medicine consultant covering the London boroughs of Camden and Islington as part of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL)

Dr 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, Vice President of Public Health Palliative Care International, 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 the first author of the new Lancet Commission on the Value of death: bringing death back into life (2022).

https://www.endoflifecare.be/libby-sallnow

https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/media/press-releases/dr-libby-sallnow-appointed-as-new-head-of-marie-curie-palliative-care-research-department/379373#:~:text=Dr%20Libby%20Sallnow%20is%20a,in%20the%20UK%20and%20internationally.

Lucy is an Associate Professor in the School of Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol. Her research and publications over the past 18 years have mainly focused on psychosocial and spiritual aspects of the illness experience; decision-making and communication; family care-giving and bereavement; and widening access to services.

https://www.goodgrieffest.com/facilitators/dr-lucy-selman/

Lucy is currently completing an NIHR Career Development Fellowship leading the OSCAR study (Optimising Staff-patient Communication in Advanced Renal disease) as well as a co-PI on the Coastal Community and Creative Health study (£2.44M, AHRC 2024-27) and work package lead for the Equitable Bereavement Care study. She is also the founding director of Good Grief Festival.

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Lucy-Selman-b629ec55-9247-4976-ba6b-b8a0c9022679/

Dr. Seow is the Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care and Health System Innovation and a Professor at McMaster University, Department of Oncology. He focuses on ways to improve palliative care delivery and the care experience, particularly in the home and community. His expertise is in health services and policy research, quality measurement, population-based analytics, and program evaluation.

https://www.palliativecareinnovation.com/about-us

Hsien Seow is the Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care, Cancer and Health System Innovation and a Professor at McMaster University, Department of Oncology. He is also an ICES and Escarpment Cancer Research Institute Scientist. His research expertise is in health services and policy research, quality measurement and improvement, population-based analytics, program evaluation and quality indicator development. His interests involve ways to improve palliative care, particularly in the home and community as well as ways to support and improve the experience of family caregivers to those with serious, life limiting illness.

https://mira.mcmaster.ca/our-faculty/hsien-seow/

Dr. Kelli Stajduhar is a professor in the School of Nursing and Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health at the University of Victoria. She has worked in oncology, palliative care, and gerontology for 30+ years as a practicing nurse, educator, and researcher. Her clinical work and research has focused on health service needs for those at the end-of-life and their families, and on the needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations.

She is lead investigator on multiple research projects including international research collaboratives on family caregiving, integration of a palliative approach to care across health sectors and studies on access to end-of-life care for people facing structural vulnerabilities. Dr. Stajduhar is the recipient of numerous awards including the Craigdarroch Award of Excellence for Knowledge Mobilization, the Award of Excellence for Nursing Research from the College of Registered Nurses of BC and the Canadian Association of University School of Nursing, and Academic of the Year from the Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

Dr. Stajduhar is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Canadian Academy of Nursing and the Royal Society of Canada. In 2021 Dr. Stajduhar was also awarded the highly competitive Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Palliative Approaches to Care in Aging and Community Health.

https://www.uvic.ca/research/groups/palliative/our-team/uvic-team/profiles/stajduhar-kelli.php

Maggie is a senior research coordinator in the Department of Oncology at McMaster University. She has over 15 years expertise in education, program design, research facilitation and knowledge exchange. She has led projects on quality improvement in public health, palliative care, mental health, and program evaluation. Maggie has a Master's degree in Public Policy from McMaster University.

Carren Dujela (NunatuKavut Nation) is a Research Coordinator with over 20 years’ experience, including 8 years with Dr. Stajduhar’s Palliative Approaches to Care in Aging and Community Health team. She holds an MA in Sociology from the University of Victoria, along with undergraduate degrees in English and Sociology, and an LPN diploma.

Ashleigh is the Administrative Assistant for the Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health (IALH) at the University of Victoria. Ashleigh helps IALH Research Fellows with event planning, logistics, and research communications. Ashleigh holds a diploma in Hotel and Restaurant Management and has several years experience in the hospitality industry.

Leah oversees administration of the Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health, including operational logistics, event management, and technical production. She enjoys providing support to faculty and student affiliates, and contributing to IALH’s collaborative environment. Leah's professional interests include science communication and health research, and she enjoys making research knowledge accessible to everyone.