Joni Gilissen

Senior researcher
PhD in Health Sciences (VUB) – promotor: Prof Dr Lieve Van den Block
PhD in Biomedical Sciences (KUL) – promotor: Prof Dr Chris Gastmans
Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health

Joni (°1990) holds a master’s degree in Social Policy (KUL) and Social Profit & Public Management (Ghent University). She has a PhD in Social Health Sciences (End-of-Life Care Research Group, VUB) and Biomedical Sciences (Center for Biomedical Ethics and Law, KUL). Her research primarily focuses on the end of life of and palliative care in older adults. Her doctoral research has focused on the development of an advance care planning intervention program in nursing homes, which she evaluated in a cluster randomized controlled trial and mixed-methods process evaluation.

Joni is currently working as an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute (Department of Neurology , UCSF) where her research is focusing on early palliative care in dementia. In September 2019, she will transfer to Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital to spend 1 year working with Prof Dr Jennifer Temel and Prof Dr Christine Ritchie on a research study regarding palliative care in people who are living with dementia and cancer. For the latter she has been awarded a Belgian American Educational Foundation (B.A.E.F.) and Fulbright postdoctoral scholarship.