Prof Samar Aoun AM is Perron Institute Research Chair in Palliative Care at the University of Western Australia, Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, chair of Compassionate Communities Australia and South-West Compassionate Communities Network in WA and immediate past chair of MND Australia and MND Association of Western Australia (MNDAWA).

Prof Aoun is an international leader in the promotion and advocacy of public health approaches to palliative care and led this approach for those living with grief and bereavement and specifically for MND. Her research programs on supporting family carers at end of life and the public health approach to bereavement care have informed policy and practice at the national and international levels.

Samar co-founded and chairs the South West Compassionate Communities Network in Western Australia and has led the Compassionate Connector Program which offers the practical and social support needed by families with life limiting illnesses. The program significantly improved social connectedness and reduced hospital admissions. She founded and chairs Compassionate Communities Australia which aims to become a hub of knowledge and skills for community-led solutions that would lead to social and systems change.

She is on the council of Public Health Palliative Care International and is a member of the Public Health Palliative Care reference group of the European Association of Palliative Care. She served as member of the International Expert Advisory Group for the development of best practice statements in bereavement care in palliative care in Europe. She also served on the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council committees and chaired their grant review panels for 5 years.

Among Samar’s awards: The Centenary Medal in 2003 from the Prime Minister of Australia; the 2018 Medal for Excellence from the European Society for Person Centred Healthcare, the 2023 WA Australian of the Year; the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from MND Australia; the President’s Cup from MNDAWA; and Member of the Order of Australia (AM), Australia Day Honours, January 2025.

Professor Chow is the Head of the Department, Si Yuan Professor in Health and Social Work, and Master of the University’s New College. She has a background as a registered social worker specializing in bereavement counseling and is the founder of the first community-based bereavement counseling center in Hong Kong.

Professor Chow has formerly served as Secretary of the Association for Death Education and Counselling (ADEC) and as a Board Member of the Asia Pacific Hospice Network (APHN). As a recognized translational scientist in thanatology, Professor Chow was elected as the Chairperson of the prestigious International Workgroup on Death, Dying, and Bereavement from 2016 to 2022.

Currently, within the university, Professor Chow serves as the Director of the Jockey Club Bereavement Care and Support Alliance (JCBeCare) and Jockey Club End-of-Life Community Care Project (JCECC) and as the Associate Director of Sau Po Centre of Ageing. She also serves on the Lotteries Fund Advisory Committee and the Boards of Directors of other NGOs in Hong Kong. Additionally, she is the first and current Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Hong Kong Academy of Social Work.

Dr. Maarten C. Eisma is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research focuses on the phenomenology, assessment, risk and protective factors, treatment and societal effects of prolonged grief. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters. He has provided keynotes and seminars on prolonged grief in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Asia. He is editorial board member of Death Studies and Journal of Loss and Trauma. He co-authored the first Dutch evidence-based multidisciplinary palliative care guideline on grief. In 2023, he received the Association of Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) Research Recognition Award for his contributions to the understanding of grief and bereavement.

​​Christina Puchalski, MD, OCDS, is the founder and Executive Director of the George Washington University’s Institute for Spirituality and Health (GWish) and Professor of Medicine at The George Washington University in Washington, DC.  She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.  Through her innovative curricular development including the development of the widely used spiritual history tool FICA she continues to break new ground in the understanding and integration of spiritual care in healthcare settings as an essential element of whole-person care which has led to the development of Interprofessional Spiritual Care Education Curriculum (ISPEC).  Dr. Puchalski is author of Time for Listening and Caring: Spirituality, Care of the Seriously Ill and Dying, and co-author of Making Health Care Whole and The Oxford Textbook of Spirituality and Health. In 2018, Dr. Puchalski was named as one of “30 Visionaries” in the field by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.​

Prof Samar Aoun AM is Perron Institute Research Chair in Palliative Care at the University of Western Australia, Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, chair of Compassionate Communities Australia and South-West Compassionate Communities Network in WA and immediate past chair of MND Australia and MND Association of Western Australia (MNDAWA).

Prof Aoun is an international leader in the promotion and advocacy of public health approaches to palliative care and led this approach for those living with grief and bereavement and specifically for MND. Her research programs on supporting family carers at end of life and the public health approach to bereavement care have informed policy and practice at the national and international levels.

Samar co-founded and chairs the South West Compassionate Communities Network in Western Australia and has led the Compassionate Connector Program which offers the practical and social support needed by families with life limiting illnesses. The program significantly improved social connectedness and reduced hospital admissions. She founded and chairs Compassionate Communities Australia which aims to become a hub of knowledge and skills for community-led solutions that would lead to social and systems change.

She is on the council of Public Health Palliative Care International and is a member of the Public Health Palliative Care reference group of the European Association of Palliative Care. She served as member of the International Expert Advisory Group for the development of best practice statements in bereavement care in palliative care in Europe. She also served on the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council committees and chaired their grant review panels for 5 years.

Among Samar’s awards: The Centenary Medal in 2003 from the Prime Minister of Australia; the 2018 Medal for Excellence from the European Society for Person Centred Healthcare, the 2023 WA Australian of the Year; the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from MND Australia; the President’s Cup from MNDAWA; and Member of the Order of Australia (AM), Australia Day Honours, January 2025.

Dr. Chen Chuqian is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Humanities at Southeast University, where she focuses on death, dying, and bereavement, especially professional bereavement experiences of medical staff. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Work and Social Administration from the University of Hong Kong. Dr. Chen is a certified Thanatologist and serves as an advisor to the Jockey Club Bereavement Care and Support Alliance. She is also a director of both the Medical Ethics Professional Committee of the Jiangsu Health Law Society and the Medical Humanities Education Professional Committee of the Jiangsu Higher Education Medical Education Research Association.

Dr. Chen has led and participated in multiple research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and other governmental and educational bodies. Her work has been published in prominent journals, including Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, International Journal of Nursing Studies, and Psycho-oncology. She has published over 20 articles as the first or corresponding author. Her development of the Professional Bereavement Scale has also attracted adaptation requests from researchers in countries including the U.S., Australia, Turkey, Germany, Korea, and Belgium.

In addition to her academic research, Dr. Chen is committed to public education on grief and palliative care. She has delivered TED talks, podcasts, and lectures, reaching more than 30,000 listeners. Dr. Chen also provides professional bereavement training for medical staff and offers workshops and consultations at both national and international forums.

Professor Vivian Lou

Dr Margaret Suen is the Honorary Senior Lecturer of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of the University of Hong Kong. She received her social work undergraduate training in the University of Windsor (Canada), post-graduate training in health administration in the University of New South Wales (Australia), and doctoral training in the University of Hong Kong. She is a registered social worker and had been serving the Hong Kong Hospital Authority at both service development and clinical practice level until 2020. She received palliative care training in the University of Cardiff (UK) and her clinical practice focused on palliative and End-of-Life psychosocial care. She was awarded the Outstanding Social Worker of Hong Kong in 2011, Fellow in Thanatology (ADEC) since 2012, and Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Social Work in 2024. Currently, she is a team member in the JCBeCare Project, with teaching and research interest in medical social work, advance care planning, and grief and bereavement care.

Dr Karl Andriessen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Australia, and a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven-University of Leuven, Belgium. He is a well-known researcher in the field of suicide bereavement and prevention, and worked in Australia, Belgium, and internationally.

His involvement is rooted in clinical practice, starting 35 years ago as a Social Worker in youth and family counselling, and telephone crisis lines, followed by leading positions in suicide prevention, bereavement, helplines, community mental health centres, and policy development. Karl holds a Master in Suicidology (Griffith University, 2006), and a PhD (2018) from the School of Psychiatry, UNSW, Sydney. He is the recipient of several (inter-)national awards, and serves as Chair of the Special Interest Group on Suicide Bereavement of the International Association for Suicide Prevention. He is an advisor to several projects in the field of suicide prevention and bereavement, has published widely including 100+ peer-reviewed articles and ‘Postvention in action, the international handbook of suicide bereavement support’ (Hogrefe, 2017), and is Associate Editor of Death Studies.

Professor Chan is a world leader in health and social work. She is editor and author of over 20 books, author of over 300 articles and book chapters in health and mental health in social work, eastern integrative empowerment intervention and outcome research, health, mental health and integrative social work. She advocated for a strength-oriented empowerment approach in working with traumatized individuals such as cancer patients, women of divorce, persons in end-of-life and bereavement. Her focus is on transformation through pain and suffering. She adopted vigorous bio-psycho-social outcome indicators in her randomized trials on measuring impact of her innovative Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit (IBMS) interventions on different population groups. She leads the first multi-disciplinary team using physiological impact (cortisol, telomerase) as outcome of psychosocial interventions in Hong Kong. Her creative synergy of Chinese philosophies and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices into holistic behavioral health intervention is ground breaking. Her meaning-making empowerment strategies effectively nurture spirituality of forgiveness, appreciation, gratitude, peace, hope, resilience and optimism, which are fundamental to building a harmonious society. Her leadership in health and social work is also recognized by her many international awards and recognitions. She has graduated over 60 research postgraduate students, many of them has taken up leadership positions in prestigious universities.

Professor Celia Chan is a social work researcher, practitioner, and educator specializing in family and healthcare social work, with a strong focus on reproductive health. Her work integrates research evidence, interdisciplinary expertise, and clinical practice to develop innovative approaches that foster resilience and healing in individuals, families, and communities.

Celia is a pioneer in advancing psychosocial care for those experiencing reproductive trauma, including infertility, pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and neonatal death. She has developed psychological assessment and counseling models to support individuals and couples navigating the profound grief associated with reproductive loss. Her integrated perinatal bereavement care model combines emotional support with evidence-based interventions to address the unique challenges faced by grieving parents.

Guided by the Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit Intervention Model, Celia promotes holistic, non-pharmaceutical approaches that blend Western therapeutic techniques with Eastern philosophies. These interventions focus on nurturing emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being during times of profound loss.

Through her interdisciplinary and patient-centered approach, Celia seeks to deepen the understanding of the psychological and social dimensions of bereavement and develop tailored, evidence-based interventions to support grieving families. Her contributions continue to shape best practices in perinatal bereavement care and reproductive psychology.

Duan Wenjie, PhD, is a Full Professor in the Department of Social Work at East China University of Science and Technology. He obtained his Ph.D. in Applied Social Sciences from the City University of Hong Kong in 2016 and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Davis, from 2018 to 2019. Dr. Duan is currently Co-Chair of ISOQOL Chinese-PRO SIG (2023-2025). In 2023, he was named among the “World’s Top 2% Most-cited Scientists” list compiled by a research team from Stanford University. He serves as Associate Editor of Applied Research in Quality of Life (2024-2025), Associate Reginal Editor (China) of Child & Family Social Work (2022-2027), and Editorial Board Member of Research on Social Work Practice (2018-2026). He has led over 20 projects, including the National Social Science Fund, the Shanghai Natural Science Fund, and key projects from the Shanghai Municipal People's Government Development Research Center. He has published more than 90 SSCI-indexed papers with a cumulative impact factor of 206. These articles have been cited 3000 times on Google Scholar, with an i10 index of 61. Representative publications appear in journals such as Social Science & Medicine, European Journal of Psychological Assessment, Research on Social Work Practice, British Journal of Social Work, Children and Youth Services Review, Social Indicator Research, Journal of Happiness Studies, Quality of Life Research, etc.

Fu Fang holds a Master's degree in Psychology from Beijing Normal University and a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Hong Kong. She is an Associate Professor and Deputy head of Social Work Department at the School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University. She has been a visiting scholar at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Smith College in the United States, and the University of Eastern Finland. Fu Fang serves as Deputy Secretary-General and Executive Council Member of the Medical Social Work Professional Committee of the Chinese Association of Social Workers; Deputy Secretary-General of the Hospice Care Committee of the China Life Care Association; Council Member of the Child Social Work Specialized Committee of the Chinese Association of Social Workers; Council Member of the Medical Social Work Specialized Committee of the Shanghai Association of Social Workers; and Council Member of the Mental Health Social Work Specialized Committee of the Shanghai Association of Social Workers. Her primary research focuses on health social work and child social work. She has published several international papers in SSCI journals such as Qualitative Health Research, Children and Youth Service Review, Journal of Loss and Trauma, OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, and International Social Work etc.

Professor of Thanatology at King’s University College/ Western University in London, Canada, where she also maintains a private clinical practice specializing in issues related to change, loss, and transition. Dr. Harris developed the degree program in Thanatology at King’s University College. In addition, she is a faculty member of the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, dedicated to training in grief therapy leading toward Certification in Meaning Reconstruction in Loss.

She currently serves on the board of directors for the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement and has served on the board of directors for the Association for Death Education and Counseling. She is the series co-editor for Routledge Publishing Company’s Death, Dying, and Bereavement Series and she is an internationally recognized speaker and author.

Her research interests include non-death loss and grief, including political grief and environmental grief. She is also interested in social justice issues and the application of compassion-based approaches to loss and grief. Her most recent book is Compassion-Based Approaches to Loss and Grief and the second volume of The Handbook of Social Justice in Loss and Grief is due to be released later in 2025.

Jiao Keyuan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work, School of Social and Public Administration at East China University of Science and Technology. She obtained her Ph.D. in Social Work and Social Administration from The University of Hong Kong and holds a master’s degree in Psychology from Beijing Normal University. Dr. Jiao is a certified thanatology professional recognized by the Association for Death Education and Counseling and has served as a postdoctoral fellow and part-time lecturer at The University of Hong Kong. Dr Jiao’s research focuses on bereavement and grief, palliative care, and mental health, exploring topics such as dyadic coping in bereaved families, assessment in bereavement and grief, and symptom networks in end-of-life care. Dr. Jiao has authored 13 papers in SCI/SSCI journals, five as the first author, and published three CSSCI papers, with some of her work published in journals Palliative Medicine, Family Process, and Journal of Family Psychology.

Dr Timothy Kwok graduated from University of Leicester in the UK and received specialist training in Geriatric and Internal Medicine in St George’s Hospital in London before returning to Hong Kong, to join the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics in the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 1994. He obtained his MD in 2004. He was promoted to professorship in 2006, and was endowed SC Ho Professorship in 2022. At CUHK, he is director of Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing (a comprehensive care centre for people with dementia) and Jockey Club centre for osteoporosis care and control. His research interests include dementia, B vitamins for brain health, osteoporosis, falls, nutrition in older people.

Dr. Yanjuan Li is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hong Kong. She earned her Ph.D. in Applied Psychology from Peking University, where her doctoral research examined distress tolerance as a key mechanism in mindfulness-based interventions for emotional distress. Dr. Li has authored 10 papers published in notable journals, including Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, and Mindfulness. In addition to her academic endeavors, Dr. Li is a trained mindfulness instructor and counselor specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy. Currently, Dr. Li is a member of the JCbeCARE project, where she focuses on bereavement-related research. Her work investigates the effects of a group intervention based on the Dual Process Model (DPM), explores support needs of the bereaved, and involves revising related measurement tools.

Joseph is currently working as a Service Development Officer at the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Jockey Club Rehabilitation Centre. Previously engaged in youth services, development and administrative management for groups of people with disabilities. Since joining the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in 2008, Joseph has participated in palliative care services for people with disabilities; the development and practical work of life and death education; and the management of residential services for elderly individuals with disabilities. During this period, he has provided lectures, training courses, and retreat activities related to rehabilitation, elderly care, life and death education, and palliative care services for relevant organizations and institutions in Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China, including government departments, higher education institutions, special schools, social service organizations, volunteer groups, parent groups of people with disabilities, and churches. He has also collaborated with universities to plan and implement research and publication projects on topics such as the needs for life and death education for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Ng Yong Hao is a dedicated social worker whose practice and research interests focus on compassionate communities, non-death loss and grief, and grief literacy. He focuses on how these themes intersect with human services and systemic issues to improve support for those navigating loss.

Yong Hao is a Senior Tutor at the National University of Singapore and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. Supported by Singapore's Ministry of Education and the National University of Singapore through the prestigious Overseas Postdoctoral Fellowship, he investigates compassionate community models and their adaptation to diverse social and cultural contexts.

Before transitioning to academia, Yong Hao gained valuable experience as a frontline social worker in Singapore's community and medical settings, directly supporting individuals and families facing loss and grief. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Hong Kong and a Master of Social Work from the National University of Singapore. Yong Hao is also a Fellow in Thanatology with the Association for Death Education and Counseling and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Ven. Sik Hin Hung graduated from The University of Oregon and initially worked in the business and financial sector in Hong Kong. In 1990, he was ordained under Grand Master Ven. Sheng Yi and obtained an MA in Religious Studies from SOAS, University of London in 1993. As a Founding Fellow of the Centre of Buddhist Studies at The University of Hong Kong, he served as the Centre Director for nearly a decade and is currently a Senior Fellow. He helped establish the Master of Buddhist Studies, Master of Buddhist Counselling, and the Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Practice of Buddhist Counselling programs. Ven. Hin Hung teaches meditation, works on making Buddhist teachings more accessible, and has numerous publications on Buddhism, psychotherapy, and Buddhist education.

Suqin Tang (PhD) is an Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at the School of Psychology of Shenzhen University. She is a member and registered clinical and counseling psychologist of the Chinese Psychological Society and is certified in thanatology at the Association for Death Education and Counseling. She was awarded Fulbright – Research Grant Council Hong Kong Research Scholar in 2017 for her visit to Weill Cornell Medical College. Her research and practice have focused on grief and bereavement since her doctoral study at The University of Hong Kong. She is committed to exploring how psychological and psychosocial factors influence individuals’ adjustment to the death of a close person, perinatal loss, and breakup, as well as effective interventions. She is also strongly interested in digital intervention and ecological momentary assessment and intervention. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and worked as principal investigator for several prestigious Chinese research grants funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Humanities and Social Science Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of China, and Shenzhen Science and Technology Program. She is the leading author of Saying Goodbye: How to Heal Your Grief, one of the authors of Handbook of Drug-Related Death Bereavement, and one of the translators of the Chinese version of Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner (fifth edition).

Professor Wang Ying Wei currently serves as the Director of the Center for Palliative Care and as a medical consultant at Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. He is also the co-chair of the education subcommittee of the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN).

He received his MD degree from National Taiwan University and completed his PhD studies at Tulane University in the United States. After completing his residency in Family Medicine at National Taiwan University Hospital, he had the privilege of serving in various roles, including Director General of the Health Promotion Administration at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Chief of the Heart Lotus Hospice at Tzu Chi General Hospital, and Director of the Department of Medical Humanities at Tzu Chi University.

In 1996, Professor Wang helped establish the first Buddhist hospice program in eastern Taiwan. Over the years, he has worked alongside colleagues to develop various programs in hospice palliative care and medical humanities, striving to contribute to the growth of these fields in Taiwan. His areas of focus include palliative care, medical education, and health promotion.

Ms. Janet CHOI is a registered social worker in Hong Kong specializing in psychosocial intervention in palliative and bereavement care. She holds the Advance Postgraduate Certificate in Palliative Care for Allied Health Professionals from the Hong Kong Hospital Authority and is a Certified Thanatologist (CT). Ms. Choi is a trailblazer in the consultative palliative care within the Hospital Authority, bringing her extensive clinical expertise to provide individual counselling and group interventions for patients and their families navigating bereavement issues. Her compassionate approach and wealth of experience make her a valuable resource in supporting the bereaved.