Teaching Faculty

Dr Rebecca Coles-Gale is a qualified clinical and health psychologist working in the United Kingdom with a specialist interest working in specialist palliative care, intensive care units, oncology departments and occupational health services. She offers psychological experience and expertise for people and their families in receipt of care and for staff working in each of these settings. Her skills are in offering specialist psychological assessment, one-to-one, couple and family therapy, consultation and clinical supervision, teaching and training. She is currently working for the British National Health Service (NHS) and at the same time, practising in her own private clinical psychology.

Jan Phillips is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing with qualifications encompassing general, palliative care and oncology nursing and a faculty member of the Asia Pacific Hospice and Palliative Care Network (APHN).

Since 2000, Jan has been a regular visitor to Hospis Malaysia as well as the Rachel House Paediatric Palliative CareTeam in Jakarta, Indonesia. Over more recent times, she has travelled as a faculty member of the Lien Collaborative APHN programmes to both Myanmar and Bangladesh. Prior to her APHN involvement Jan lived and worked at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Lahore, Pakistan where she assisted in the development of their palliative care service.

Sumy Menon spent her childhood years in Singapore but lived and worked in England for 15 years before returning home. She was called to the English Bar (Lincoln’s Inn) after she graduated with an LLM (Commercial and Corporate Law) from Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London, and an LLB (Hons) from the University of Birmingham. Prior to moving back to Singapore, she lived in London where she worked in-house reviewing, negotiating and drafting contractual agreements. She started her teaching career at the NUS Faculty of Law in 2004 in the Legal Skills Programme and on the LLM (International Business Law) Programme.

From 2008-2009, Sumy was appointed as Legal Consultant to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports to draft the Code of Practice for the new Mental Capacity Act. This sparked a developing interest for her in health law, specifically the law relating to mental capacity and end of life care.

Sumy is a Member of the Joint Steering Committee for Advanced Care Planning where the mandate is to recommend, implement and evaluate policies that pertain to the ACP programme management across the care continuum in all healthcare settings. She has delivered numerous talks and led workshops to train health professionals on the legal and ethical aspects of mental capacity and end of life care.

Dr Linda Sheahan is a Palliative Care Physician and Clinical Ethics Consultant for SESLHD. Graduating in medicine with Honours from the University of Sydney in 2000, Linda went on to specialist training in Palliative Medicine, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians and the Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine in 2012. She works as a Staff Specialist in Palliative Care at St George and Calvary Hospitals in Sydney’s south, and is a Conjoint Lecturer with the University of New South Wales medical school.

She has had a longstanding interest in bioethics, undertaking her Honours in Medicine looking at the brain death debate, and completing her Masters in Bioethics through Monash University in 2004 with research into preimplantation genetic screening. In 2007, she undertook a Fellowship in Clinical and Organisational Ethics with the Joint Centre for Bioethics in Toronto, and has maintained a collaborative role with this group on a number of projects, including Consent for Research in the Paediatric setting, and Living Organ Donation. She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2012 to explore the interface between palliative care and legalised physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, and continues active research in this area in the Australasian context. She is now an Honorary Associate with VELiM as a member of the clinical ethics network.

Dr Jan Maree Davis is an enthusiastic teacher, with a great interest in education & training in palliative medicine. She is the Director of Palliative Care Services at Calvary Hospital Sydney; she is the Area Director of the Palliative Care Services for the South-Eastern Sydney Local Health District (southern sector). She is President of the New South Wales (NSW) Society of Palliative Medicine.

She has played a major role in the design & implementation of the University of New South Wales Medical School curriculum. She is a conjoint lecturer in the UNSW School of Public Health & Community Medicine, and is actively involved in medical student teaching. She has presented at many palliative care conferences within Australia, and internationally. Dr Maree has a great interest in promoting the understanding of palliative care in culturally and linguistically diverse settings. The design and implementation of the End of Life Care Clinical Pathway Project at St George Hospital has been a major work of hers over the past more than ten years.

Liese Groot-Alberts is a grief-therapist in private practice, a lecturer, public speaker, clinical supervisor and team-trainer. Her passion is working with people who are dealing with trauma, loss and bereavement. Liese has specialised in conducting training and seminars in trauma, loss, grief and bereavement as well as palliative care and resilience in the workplace. She also conducts public speaking engagements on topics such as: Facilitating Hope, Strengthening Resilience, Mindfulness, Empathy and Compassion. In her speaking presentations she uses images, poetry, humour and music on the topics presented.

Dr Sue Marsden is a palliative medicine specialist from New Zealand. Over the last 28 years, she has worked in Palliative Medicine New Zealand and Australia in hospital and community settings. Sue was instrumental in the setup of the original palliative care service in Waikato Hospital, New Zealand. She has been a part of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Organisation facilitating team for Australasia. After Dr Ross’ retirement, similar loss, grief and self-awareness workshops continued and Sue has co-facilitated these in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Zimbabwe and the Philippines. For six years, she was involved in helping to develop a palliative care program at the San Lazaro Hospital, an infectious diseases hospital, in Manila. As part of this programme she played an important role in changing the way patients die with the infectious disease, rabies. This has been reported in the journal ‘Progress in Palliative Care’ and has been the subject of chapters in two books including a major palliative medicine textbook. In the last 5 years she has also been involved in teaching palliative care in Indonesia and Samoa.

Joan Marston is based in South Africa and is presently the Technical Advisor to a project to develop palliative care for children in Malawi and India. Joan’s background is in Nursing and Social Science and she has 23 years of experience in palliative care for children. As the national paediatric development manager for the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa, from 2007 – 2010 Joan and her team developed a strategy for a national network of services, promoting the considerable growth of the number of children’s palliative care services for children in South Africa . During that time she was the project manager for a program to develop children’s palliative care Beacon centers in Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa. In 2005 colleagues from 15 countries established the International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN). The ICPCN now has membership in over 100 countries. Joan was part of the group that developed the new Guidelines for Persisting Pain in Children, as well as Guidelines for Disclosure in Children, for The World Health Organisation (WHO). She is a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group for Palliative Care; and of the UN Social Protection, Care and Support Working Group. Joan is also a board member and trustee of the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA).

Dr Anthony Herbert initially trained as a paediatric oncologist, and then completed a Fellowship in palliative care while working within the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. During this time, he developed a particular interest in cancer pain management and the symptom of insomnia in children with life limiting illnesses. Anthony’s research interests include insomnia, tele-health, music therapy and health service research.

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 counselling and is the founder of the first community-based bereavement counselling centre in Hong Kong. She has formerly acted as Secretary of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and Board Member of the Asia Pacific Hospice Network (APHN). As a recognised translational scientist in thanatology, Professor Chow was elected as the Chairperson of the prestigious International Workgroup on Death, Dying and Bereavement. Currently, within the university, Professor Chow is the Director of the Jockey Club End-of-Life Community Care Project and Associate Director of Sau Po Centre of Ageing. She serves the Lotteries Fund Advisory Committee as well as Boards of Directors of other NGOs in Hong Kong. She is also the first and current Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Hong Kong Academy of Social Work.
Professor Chow’s scholarship and contribution to social work practice have been recognized by the following awards: Cross-Cultural Award, (ADEC) (2005); Cadenza Fellowship (2008); Best Abstract Award (Researcher) (2010); Distinguished Alumni Award (2013) (CUHK); Rainbow of Life Outstanding Individual Award (2013); Outstanding Social Worker Award (2014); Outstanding Teaching Award of the University of Hong Kong (2014); Outstanding Research Output Awards (2017-2018) (University of Hong Kong) and Research Recognition Award (ADEC) (2020).

Dr Gilbert Fan, RSW, FAPA is a Clinical Supervisor (Satir), Fellow of the American Psychotherapy Association (USA), Registered Social Worker and Member of the International Workgroup on Death, Dying & Bereavement. He is appointed Master Social Work Practise Leader by the Ministry of Social & Family Development (2015 to Mar 2020) and Fellow of the Social Service Institute (2016 – 2019; 2020-2023). Gilbert’s professional doctorate is in Social Work & Future Studies. He has extensive experience as medical social worker, having worked in both general and tertiary hospitals and a short teaching stint at the Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) lecturing in Behavioural Sciences. He continues to teach in various capacities in social work and counselling programmes at both local and foreign universities namely the National University of Singapore (NUS) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is appointed Adjunct Assistant Professor in Social Work, NUS with effect from Jan 2023.
Gilbert is currently the Chair for Volunteer Engagement, Institution Wellness Officer, Master MSW of the Department of Psychosocial Oncology, and HR Counsellor & Trainer (Employee Relations), Human Resource at the National Cancer Centre Singapore. His clinical interest is in griefwork, experiential counselling and groupwork, particularly in the application of experiential counselling of patients with advanced cancers. His research interests include the study of coping behaviours, meaning making and intervention models in cancer care.

Dr Agar has substantive involvement in the research and palliative care community. She is the chief investigator and Chair for ImPACCT: “improving palliative care through clinical trials” (NSW palliative care clinical trials collaborative group). CI Agar has several roles as part of the national Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCSCC) – she is the
Chair of the trial management committee, and member of both the scientific committee and Management Advisory Board; and is the site investigator for one of the national clinical sites. She is also the Deputy Chair of the Cancer Institute New South Wales Human Research Ethics Committee and a member of the scientific advisory committee and management executive for the Australian National Cooperative trials group – neurooncology (COGNO).

Dr Noreen Chan is based in the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS) where she heads the palliative care service at the National University Hospital. She received her medical training in England, Singapore and Australia, and is a passionate advocate for education and training at all levels. Her other interests include the interface between oncology and palliative care, spiritual care, clinical decision making and ethics at the end of life. Her goal is access to palliative care for all who need it, when and where they want it.

Dr Eve Lyn Tan graduated in medicine from the University of New South Wales in 2003 and began formal training in palliative medicine in 2009. She has completed her specialist training in palliative medicine through the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and trained in many different hospitals in Sydney including Concord Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital and Liverpool Hospital in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Her interests include palliative management of progressive end-stage organ impairment and practical issues in end-of-life care. She has participated in teaching of undergraduates as well as junior medical doctors.