Keynote Speakers

Liese Groot-Alberts
Liese Groot-Alberts is a grief-therapist in private practice, workshop and seminar presenter and clinical hospice team supervisor with over 30 years of experience working in the field of grief, loss and trauma.

Over a period of many years she worked with and for Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross as a workshop leader and staff member in New Zealand, Australia, USA and Europe. After Dr. Ross’s retirement she has continued conducting workshops and seminars on topics related to palliative care, grief and bereavement in New Zealand, USA, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, India and Zimbabwe.

From 2001 till 2007 she was part of a Filipino medical specialist team, as an outside consultant, involved in assisting with the set up of a palliative care training programme in a large infectious disease hospital for the poor in Manila, The Philippines. Her main focus in the program was attending to the high burn out rates of staff, facilitating workshops in staff-care as well as training the Filipino team in the facilitation of grief, bereavement and self-care workshops. The Starfish Palliative Care Programme is now well established and conducts on-going training for Health Care professionals in the Philippines.

Website: www.liesegrootalberts.com

Stephen Connor
Stephen R. Connor, Ph.D. is Senior Research and International Consultant for the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) in Alexandria, Virginia. After serving for 10 years as an NHPCO Vice President, he is now focusing on palliative care development internationally and is NHPCO’s Loaned Executive to the newly formed Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA). He also serves as a part time consultant to the Open Society Institute’s International Palliative Care Initiative. sss

Dr Connor has worked continuously in the hospice/palliative care movement since 1976, has been the CEO of four different US hospice programs and a consultant surveyor for the Joint Commission. In addition to being a hospice and association executive, he is a researcher and psychotherapist, licensed as a clinical psychologist in California and Kentucky. Dr Connor’s areas of research interest include: bereavement and health, denial in the terminally ill, outcome and performance measurement in end of life care, and evidence based care for the dying. He is the Chair of WPCA’s Quality and Standards Workgroup, currently chairs the board of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, & Bereavement, is board treasurer of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. For the last 10 years Dr. Connor has been working on palliative care development internationally in Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin American. Dr Connor has published over 50 journal articles, reviews, and book chapters on issues related to palliative care for patients and their families and is the author of Hospice: Practice, Pitfalls, and Promise (1998), and the soon to be published book Hospice and Palliative Care: The Essential Guide 2nd Edition (In-Press, 2009).

Reena Dr Reena George
Reena George is a radiation oncologist and the head of the Palliative Care Unit at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. Reena has expertise in palliative radiation, bone pain, cord compression, education, spirituality and bowel obstruction.

Dr Liz Gwyther
Dr Gwyther is currently Coordinator of National Education and Research and Director of the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA), and Director of Helderberg Hospice. She received her medical degree at the University of Cape Town and a Diploma and a Master of Science degree in Palliative Medicine at the University of Wales. Currently she is also a senior lecturer in Palliative Medicine in the University of Cape Town and a Member of the Academy of Family Practice of South Africa.

Professor Rod MacLeod
Is Medical Director of Hibiscus Coast Hospice, Whangaparaoa, Auckland – prior to that he was District Medical Director of Palliative Care (Waitemata DHB).

He is Honorary Clinical Professor in General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of General Practice and Medical and Surgical Sciences at University of Otago, Dunedin School of Medicine. He was previously the inaugural South Link Health Professor in Palliative Care at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago (the first Chair in Palliative Care in New Zealand) and Director of Palliative Care at the Otago Community Hospice. He was also Associate Dean (Academic and Curriculum) and Chair of the Medical Education Group. Prior to this he was Director of Palliative Care at Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington. He has a longstanding interest in education in palliative care completing his PhD work in 2002 with a submission entitled “Changing the way that doctors learn to care for people who are dying”. He has published widely in the area of palliative care in national and international peer reviewed journals.

His book Snapshots on the journey – an anthology of poems through death and remembrance was published by Steele Roberts, Wellington in 2002.

Professor Sheila Payne BA(Hons), RN, Dip.N, PhD, C.Psychol
Help the Hospices Chair in Hospice Studies, International Observatory on End of Life Care, Lancaster University, United Kingdom

Professor Sheila Payne is a health psychologist with a background in nursing. Since October 2006, Sheila has held the Help the Hospices Chair in Hospice Studies based at the International Observatory on End of Life Care in the Division of Health Research at Lancaster University. The International Observatory on End of Life Care is a multidisciplinary group of 25 researchers and support staff. Professor Payne has a long track record in palliative care research and scholarship. Her research agenda focuses on hospice, palliative and end-of-life care for older people and bereavement support. She holds a number of major grants in these areas and has supervised over 20 PhD students. She teaches on research methods and has co-edited a textbook on research methods in palliative care. She co-directs the NCRI funded Cancer Experiences Collaborative with Professor Addington-Hall. She is Vice President of the European Association of Palliative Care. Sheila has published widely in academic and professional journals, written ten books, and edits the ‘Health Psychology’ book series published by the Open University Press with Sandra Horn. She was involved in editing The Role of Psychology in End of Life Care produced by The Professional Board of the British Psychological Society, in March 2008.

Dr M.R. Rajagopal
M.R.Rajagopal MD is a palliative care physician from India. He qualified as a physician from Trivandrum Medical College, Kerala and as an anaesthesiologist from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He currently works as Professor of Pain and Palliative Medicine at SUT Academy of Medical Sciences, medical director of Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences which conducts educational programs in palliative care, Chairman, Pallium India (Trust), a registered charitable organisation which works towards promotion of palliative care facilities in India and co-ordinator of the Task Force on Palliative Care and Rehabilitation for XI five year plan, National Cancer Control Program, Government of India.

Bernadette Tobin
Bernadette Tobin PhD is Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, and Reader in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University. She is Conjoint Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney, Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, and an Honorary Ethicist at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. She was a member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee for nine years. She chaired the Drafting Group responsible for the Code of Ethics for Catholic Health and Aged Care Services in Australia which was published in 2001. Her research interests are in ethics and in religious belief.

Dr Bee Wee
Originally from Malaysia, Bee qualified at Trinity College Dublin. She trained in general practice and palliative medicine in Ireland then spent almost three years as Medical Officer at Bradbury Hospice, Hong Kong. In 1995, she returned to UK where she became Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine at Southampton and Deputy Director of Education at Southampton University Medical School. She moved to Oxford in 2003 as Consultant and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Palliative Medicine. She is also Associate Director of Clinical Studies at Oxford University Medical School, Fellow and College Tutor at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Palliative Care. She is now President-Elect of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland. In 2007, she co-edited a book entitled 'Education in Palliative Care: Building a Culture of Learning', published by Oxford University Press.