Advisory Board

Professor Philip J Larkin
Since August 2018, Philip Larkin has held the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Chair of Palliative Care Nursing within the Palliative and Supportive Care Service of the University Hospital Centre (CHUV). He also directs the Master of Science in Advanced Nursing Practice at the Institute for Higher Education and Research in healthcare (IUFRS), University of Lausanne.
An Irish national, Philip Larkin has over 30 years of experience in the palliative care sector, both clinically and academically. As Professor of Palliative Care at University College Dublin, he has led the development of the All Ireland Institute for Hospice and Palliative Care, a public health project bringing together The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to improves palliative care outcomes for all citizens. He was President of the European Palliative Care Association (EAPC) from 2015 to 2019. He currently leads a palliative care nursing research team at the CHUV and continues to lecture nationally and internationally on nursing care, palliative care and compassion in care.
Professor Sheila Payne
Dr Professor Sheila Payne is a health psychologist with a background in nursing. She holds an Emeritus Chair at the International Observatory on End of Life Care at Lancaster University. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. During her career, she established and led three research Groups at the Universities of Southampton, Sheffield and Lancaster. She was President of the European Association of Palliative Care (2011-2015) and received the EAPC Award for international leadership in palliative care in 2017 and the inaugural Cicely Saunders International/EAPC award for multidisciplinary leadership in 2000. She has worked closely with the World Health Organisation as a temporary advisor for the Eastern Mediterranean Region and is a Salzburg Global Health Fellow. Professor Payne has a long track record in palliative care research and scholarship. Her research focuses on palliative and end-of-life care for older People.
Professor Frank D. Ferris
Dr Frank D. Ferris is the Associate Program Director, Associate Program Director, Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship for OhioHealth, Columbus, Ohio, USA. He holds appointments as a Clinical Professor, Hospice and Palliative Care, Department of Specialty Medicine, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OUH-COM), Athens, Ohio and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio.
Dr. Ferris is particularly interested in educational and research strategies to grow palliative care clinicians and leaders, and advance palliative care globally. He is the Principal of the International Leadership Development Initiative, the Palliative Care Interdisciplinary Curriculum, and the International Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program. He has played a leading role at the American Society for Clinical Oncology where is now the Past Chair of their International Education Steering Group and Past Chair of their Education Council. He is a Fellow & Past President of the American Association for Cancer Education and a past member of the Board of the International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care.
Dr. Ferris has published on multiple palliative care subjects and effective approaches to education and program implementation and was awarded a Golden Jubilee Medal of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by the Governor General of Canada as the author of ‘A Model to Guide Hospice Palliative Care: Based on National Principles and Norms of Practice’.
Louise Baker-Schuster
Louise Baker-Schuster is a Senior Project Manager at the Robert Bosch Stiftung in the “Health” Department. After studying German at Liverpool University and completing an MA in European Studies at the RWTH Aachen, Germany, she moved to Brussels in 2002. There she worked for the British Council on the Europe Programme followed by the European Commission in DG Education in Culture. She began her career at the Bosch Stiftung in 2007 in the “Science” Department where her main Focus was bridging the gap between schools, universities and the sciences. She transferred to the Health Department in 2014 where she began working with the EUPCA team. Since then, Louise has been closely involved in the European Palliative Care Academy and accompanied the programme during it’s funding period with the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Louise is now currently responsible for a number of national and international programmes concerning leadership and inter-professional collaboration in health care, such as Sciana – The Health Leaders Network and the introduction of the concept of Community Health Nursing into Germany.
Dr Jonathan Koffman
Dr Jonathan Koffman is Reader in Palliative Care at the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, King’s College London. Jonathan has a BSc in Social Administration and an MSc in Sociology with Special Reference to Medicine and a PhD in Cancer Studies. He was Course Director for the internationally renowned inter-professional Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma and MSc in Palliative Care during which time he was awarded coveted King’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. His research interests include clinical trials and specifically designing and evaluating complex interventions, mixed methods research, social exclusion, and communications training. He has published over 125 papers in high impact, peer-reviewed scientific journals (Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8513-5681). Jonathan was one of the founders of EUPCA, helping the develop the curriculum and successfully delivering the research methods module of the course from 2013 to 2020.