Professor Allan Kellehear is a medical and public health sociologist with interests in death, dying and end of life care. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Most of Professor Kellehear’s work examines behaviour at the end of life in palliative care, intensive care and aged care contexts. He has conducted major sociological and social psychological research on the human experience of dying. He has also founded and developed the main public health model for care of the dying, the bereaved and caregivers. This model is based on the application of health promotion, community development, and social ecology ideas and principles. Government policy interests in Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Taiwan and the UK have taken up or advocated these models for end of life care.These models of practice are more commonly know as ‘compassionate communities’ or ‘compassionate cities’.  In the UK, the Department of Health, the NHS in England, the NHS in Scotland, and several UK hospice charities have used these ideas in their current end of life care policies.

Between 2014 and 2019 Allan was the 50th Anniversary Professor (End of Life Care) at the University of Bradford. Before this appointment he held two previous chairs in England (at the Universities of Bath and Middlesex). Before coming to England Professor Kellehear held the chair of Palliative Care at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia for nearly 10 years. In 2003-4 Allan also held the competitive Annual Chair of Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo and in 2018, he was awarded the Distinguished Visiting Professorship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, Morris.  In addition to these posts, Allan has held visiting or honorary professorships in Australia, Austria, Canada, Hong Kong, the Republic of Ireland and the UK as well as a Distinguished Lectureship at a Presidential Library (Clinton) in the USA.