Luc Deliens, MSc, PhD, is a sociologist and Professor of Palliative Care Research. Since 2000, he has been the Founding Director of the End-of-Life Care Research Group of the VUB University & Ghent University in Belgium (www.endoflifecare.be). His research is focused on timely integration of palliative care, interprofessional models of palliative care, public health and palliative care and medical assistance in dying.

Internationally, he is Adjunct Professor at QUT university in Brisbane, Australia, President of Public Health Palliative Care International (https://www.phpci.org), co-chair of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Reference Group on Public Health and Palliative Care, and is involved in different on-going EU funded research projects. He successfully supervised over 60 PhDs and published over 600 papers and over 50 book chapters and received several scientific awards for his scientific work. Deliens is member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.

Elizabeth Johnson is Co-Founder & Executive Director of The Peaceful Presence Project. With a master’s degree in Community and Urban Planning, Elizabeth has traveled the globe as an educator and facilitator, awakening her fascination with the cultural and social contexts that shape human understandings of illness, grief and death. She is a member of the Public Health Palliative Care International eadership council, as well as a board member for the Central Oregon Council on Aging. She is also a former member of the Board of Directors for the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance and co-led their Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She is passionate about integrating death literacy initiatives in local communities and encouraging honest dialogue around the complexities of the dying process.

Christopher Kerr is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer at Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Chris earned his MD as well as a PhD in Neurobiology. Outside of direct patient care, Chris’ focus is in the area of patient advocacy. His passion is palliative care and a belief that such care should be throughout the continuum of illness. Under Dr. Kerr’s medical leadership, Hospice Buffalo now serves 1,200 patients a day, the majority of whom receive services upstream of hospice care.

Dr. Kerr’s background in research has evolved from bench science towards the human experience of illness as witnessed from the bedside, specifically patient’s subjective experiences at the end of life. To date, the research team at Hospice Buffalo has published multiple studies on this topic and documented over 1,500 end-of-life events, many of which are videotaped. This work was the subject of his TEDx Buffalo Talk which has been viewed 5.3 million times. It has been the subject of numerous reports around the world as well as The BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American Mind, Huffington Post,  NY Times Magazine and Psychology Today. It is also featured in a recent docu-series on Netflix called Surviving Death and a PBS Documentary called Death Is but A Dream. Dr. Kerr’s work has also been published in a book (Death Is but A Dream) by Penguin Random House which was released in 2020 in over 10 languages. 

Dr. Kerr lives on a horse farm in East Aurora, NY.

Dr. Shannon Mazur’s interest in end-on-life care sparked over 20 years ago in an advanced practice Medical Ethics course during her undergraduate studies at Loyola Marymount University. With a new perception of the complexities and challenges within our imperfect medical system, she was eager to learn more and obtained a master’s degree in Medical Ethics and Applied Philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago. Upon graduation, Dr. Mazur taught Medical Ethics at multiple universities in the Chicagoland area. Her research and teaching led to a deep interest in how patients, families, and caregivers experience the unavoidable process of death, and pulled her into hospice care. She served as a patient care volunteer for Rainbow Hospice for many years as part of the belief in the mission of “No One Dies Alone,” providing compassionate companionship to individuals in their final hours of life. She attended medical school at Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Mazur was drawn to the impact our emotional well-being has on our life and death and pursued a residency in psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School – Baystate Medical School. She then attended Yale School of Medicine for a fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.

Dr. Mazur now serves as the lead physician for the Yale Psycho-Oncology Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven Hospital. She is an active member and secretary of the Yale New Haven Hospital Adult Ethics Committee and recently assisted with the formulation and implementation of the systemwide hospital policy on proportionate palliative sedation for adult patients. Dr. Mazur is the Chair of the Academy of Consultation Psychiatry Bioethics Special Interest Group.

Cindy Paardekooper is Kokatha woman from the far west coast of South Australia based in Adelaide. She is an Aboriginal Consultant for Palliative Care Education, Aged care and involved in other Aboriginal affairs, both in the Northern Territory, and in South Australia. Cindy has been extensively involved in the National PEPA Program and other National and state level Palliative Care Projects. In 2022, she was the co-lead of the South Australian Approach to Aboriginal Comfort Care-Pathways to Palliative Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Cindy has been instrumental in delivering Cultural capability training to all service providers to improve the quality of palliative care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by building capacity in frontline staff to deliver care that is culturally safe, relevant, and responsive. This education promotes access to, and uptake of palliative care services by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through improved community awareness and understanding of palliative care, building capacity in frontline staff to share knowledge around palliative care services, and to be aware and equipped to support Aboriginal patients on their end-of-life journey.

Cindy is the SA Health Representative on the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Palliative Care Advisory Group and other Palliative Care committees. She maintains a strong desire to support and advocate for Aboriginal people, their families and Communities to achieve improved life outcomes and maintain strong connections to culture, kin and country. 

Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C, is a foremost expert on medical law and clinical ethics. He focuses on patient rights and healthcare decision making, especially at the end of life. A fellow of the Hastings Center and previously both a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy, and Ethics at the University of Ottawa, and a visiting scholar at the Brocher Foundation in Switzerland; Pope is now a Professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

While Professor Pope serves in a range of consulting capacities, he has been particularly influential through extensive high-impact scholarship. Ranked among the Top 20 most cited health law scholars in the United States and the Top 50 in the world, Pope has over 250 law, medicine, and bioethics publications. Prior to joining academia, Professor Pope practiced at Arnold & Porter and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Pope earned a JD and PhD from Georgetown University. He also currently serves as an Advisor to the Completed Life Initiative.

Samuel Sangwa serves as a Board Advisory Member at Acreol, entrusted with the role of offering insights and steering the design and implementation of initiatives focused on raising awareness about end-of-life care through the prism of arts. His profound commitment, deeply rooted in the Ubuntu philosophy, underscores his belief that humanity and dignity remain immutable in the face of terminal illnesses.

For Samuel, art and creativity stand as permanent reminders, keeping us acutely attuned to our interconnected humanity and inherent dignity. He is also CISAC’s Regional Director for Africa, responsible for coordinating the activities of member societies in Africa, the promotion of laws relating to intellectual property in creative works and the development of an effective network of collective management societies.

Kahu Keoki Kīkaha Pai Baclayon is an experienced healer of lāʻau lapaʻau (traditional Hawaiian Medicine) knowledge who teaches at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

He also integrates traditional healing practices with allopathic medicine at the Waimānalo Health Center for patients seeking a hybrid of conventional healing. Kahu Keoki is the Kahu of Hālau Lapaʻau ʻo Waitata and Pā Lapaʻau ʻo ʻOhākea, two traditional healing groups dedicated to creating healers for the home and the nation. He advocates for preserving lāʻau lapaʻau and implementing culturally appropriate healing innovations according to the needs of the individual and collective community.