Steven Vanderstichelen

Steven Vanderstichelen (Msc., PhD.) is an assistant professor and post-doctoral researcher at the End-of-Life Care Research Group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) & Ghent University. Steven is a sociologist and social health scientist, focusing on public health approaches to societal end-of-life challenges. His research studies volunteering in palliative care, death literacy and compassionate community approaches to end-of-life challenges (incl. Compassionate Schools and Workplaces). In 2023 he was awarded an FWO Senior postdoctoral researcher fellowship (2024-2026). He has also been awarded the Kathy Lindekens Award for patient oriented research for his KOTK funded ‘Attentive Visitors’ project. Steven is one of the EU-CoWork coordinators. 

Steven is currently also an active member of the VUB Interdisciplinary Research Program and Centre of Expertise on Compassionate Communities (IRP16, IRP24) steering group, the EAPC Reference Group on Public Health and Palliative Care steering group, and the council of Public Health Palliative Care International. He is also co-founder and -chair of the International Death Literacies Network.