EAPC Head Office Team

Julie Ling has been CEO of the European Association for Palliative Care since January 2015.  Originally a nurse, Julie has worked in palliative care for over thirty years in both adult and children’s palliative care.  She has held a variety of posts in clinical care; management; research; policy and the voluntary sector.  

In July 2021, Julie was appointed as a Consultant – Technical Specialist on Palliative care at the World Health Organisation Europe.

Julie is currently involved in the following EU research projects:

• MyPal: Fostering Palliative Care of Adults and Children with Cancer through Advanced Patient Reported Outcome Systems Home page – MYPAL
• ´Palliative Sedation’ – The use of proportional palliative sedation for the relief of refractory symptoms. Home page – Palliative Sedation
• DIAdIC: Dyadic Psychosocial Interventions for people with Advanced cancer and their Informal Caregivers Home page- DIAdIC
• NursEduPal@Euro: Palliative Care Core Competencies and novel European matrix for educating bachelor-degree nurses Home page- nursedupal.eu
• RESPACC: Research for all palliative care clinicians (RESPACC)
  Ref. no.: 2020-1-RO01-KA202-080128
• EDUPALL: Translating International Recommendations into Undergraduate Palliative Care Curriculum Home page- EDUPALL (knowledge dissemination of completed project)

Julie has written and published on various aspects of palliative care, many in peer-reviewed journals.  Julie is also a member of the editorial board for the International Journal of Palliative Nursing and a reviewer for several other palliative care journals.

Julie is currently chair of the World Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance, a global palliative care organisation that lobbies and advocates for the provision of palliative care as part of universal health coverage.   She is also a member of the board of the Health Research Board, Ireland. 

Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6187-8253

Christine joined the EAPC in 2021 in a part-time role working from home in Northern Ireland.

Joanne lives on a farm in Kilkenny, Ireland with her husband, their 2 children and a variety of animals! She qualified as a physiotherapist in the UK in 1997. In 1999 she began working at the Christie Hospital NHS Trust as a specialist oncology physiotherapist and it was here that her interest in palliative and end-of-life care began to grow. Throughout her clinical career she has concentrated on the provision of physiotherapy for people diagnosed with cancer. Providing support for those going through treatment, surviving beyond treatment, living with cancer or dying from cancer. Her greatest teachers, and those whom have had the most impact and influence on her have been the people (patients and their loved ones) she has worked with.

Education, advocacy and quality improvement have always been an important part of her work and she has extensive experience in these both in physiotherapy and also in end-of-life care. In 2007 she began working with the Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) on their ‘Hospice Friendly Hospitals’ programme, an ambitious project which aimed to improve the delivery of end-of-life care in Ireland on a national scale. She has contributed to the development, design and delivery of the IHF’s healthcare training programmes and continues to deliver education, training and support to staff throughout the country in hospitals and residential care settings. She is passionate about person-centred end-of-life care and her aim through this work is to support healthcare staff to be confident and comfortable when communicating with patients and their loved ones, particularly in end-of-life situations.

Joanne joined the EAPC in April 2021. She is thankful for the opportunity to work with the EAPC head office team, Board and the many experts of the palliative care community who are part of the EAPC Task Force and Reference Groups.

Claudia Sütfeld has been working as Congress Coordinator for the European Association for Palliative Care since January 2018. Being an editorial journalist, Claudia has been working in the field of palliative care for over ten years. She launched a “Hospice and Palliative Care Week” (“Hospiz- und Palliativwoche”), edited a cookbook for “the ones that are left behind” (“Pudding ist Seelsorge”) and set up a “Death Café”. Claudia worked with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) in development aid in several African countries. She also lived in New York and Canada for a few years, working as a journalist. She has experience in TV and radio broadcasting as well as in working for newspapers, political parties and advertisement agencies. Furthermore, Claudia has build a career as paintress. She has had various exhibitions and over many years given art classes in her own art studio.

She is currently setting up a blog about “Death and the city – cemeteries and the stories they tell” and a project about “Arts in palliative Care”.

Fódhla joined the EAPC as a part-time project officer in August 2022. She has previously worked as a researcher for projects on palliative rehabilitation and inequalities in palliative care for older individuals in Ireland. She also co-authored a review for the Irish Department of Health to inform a new iteration of national policy for palliative care.  

She is currently involved in the following EU projects: 

• Inspire 
• PAINLESS  

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fodhla-Ni-Cheileachair 

Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5980-4124