BRF Committee
Liz Rolls 
Chair  		 Liz is currently a Senior Research Associate at Lancaster University (working on the Cancer Experiences Collaborative project - http://www.ceco.org.uk/) and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Gloucestershire. She is a registered nurse, health visitor and trained counsellor. She came into higher education, as a health visitor tutor, and has since been engaged in the education and training of a wide range of health and social care practitioners. In recent years, she has undertaken a number of research and consultancy activities, including research on UK childhood bereavement services involving interviews with bereaved children and their parents, and research with services 'mapping evaluations'. Her doctorate is entitled 'Containing grief: Ambiguities and dilemmas in the emotional work of UK childhood bereavement services'. She has published a number of papers and contributed to a number of chapters on aspects of UK childhood bereavement service provision, children's and parent's experience of using them, and of the staff experience of working in them.

Gillian Chowns 
Vice-Chair  

 Gillian has worked in Social Services, Education and the NHS. A local authority social worker for many years, specialising in Children and Families, she also taught in primary, secondary, sixth form and further education settings, both in England and Africa. In 1997 she moved into the palliative care field, establishing an innovative social work post within the East Berks Macmillan Palliative Care Team, specifically to support children whose parents were facing a life-threatening illness.

From 1999 she combined this with a post as Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, in the School of Health and Social Care, where she taught on the Palliative Care Degree course. More recently, in 2006, she completed her doctoral research, at the University of Southampton, on the pre-bereavement needs of children. Part of this research involved the production of a video "No - You don't know how we feel", which has sold widely in the UK and also abroad. Although intended for families, it has been used extensively as a training tool for professionals.

In 2008 Gillian moved to the University of Southampton, as a Visiting Fellow. She is also co-director of Palliative Care Works, a collaborative consultancy specialising in palliative care in resource-poor countries. She has contributed chapters to the following books:-

Monroe, B. and Kraus, F. (2005) Brief Interventions with Bereaved Children. Oxford: OUP

Jarrett L (2007) Creative Engagement in Palliative Care. Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing

Wee, B. and Hughes, N. (2007) Education in Palliative Care. Oxford: OUP.

Reason P and Bradbury H (2008) Handbook of Action Research London Sage

Jan Oyebode
  Treasurer 

Jan is a clinical psychologist and worked for many years with older people in the NHS in both physical and mental health services, often working with issues of loss and bereavement.
She made a part-time move to an academic post within the Clinical Psychology Programme team at the University of Birmingham in 1996 which allowed her to pursue her interest in bereavement research.
She is now working 4 days a week as Director of the Clinical Psychology Doctorate Programme and 1 day a week as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with older people in the NHS. She uses a wide range of research methods including single case series and qualitative approaches. Her main research interests are in continuing bonds after bereavement especially in relation to older adults.
Mollie Cook   Mollie worked as a ward sister on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Guy’s Hospital between 1986 and 1998 during which time she recognised the lack of information and support offered to the parents whose children died. She began to develop a very small service in her own time, which included co-facilitating a bereaved parents’ support group with the Counselling Psychologist for Paediatrics. Mollie also began an Open University Psychology Degree in 1990 and a counselling certificate course at WPF in 1994. Her bereavement support work gradually developed and in 1998 it became a full-time post, and offered support to all bereaved parents within the Evelina Children’s Hospital at Guy’s. Between the years 1994 and 2003 Mollie completed her BSc Hons. Psychology, and a diploma and MSc Counselling Psychology at Roehampton, University of Surrey. She is a chartered Counselling Psychologist. The research component of her Masters looked at possible reasons for clients not returning to counselling after the initial session.
Jonathan Hartley   Jonathan Hartley has been specifically involved in bereavement support since 1998 when he became Director of the Bereavement Care Standards: UK Project where he researched practice in bereavement care across the UK to provide guidance on standards. He has performed various voluntary roles with the Child Bereavement Network, the Child Death Helpline and Help the Hospices, and was previously Treasurer for the Bereavement Research Forum.

Jonathan's main clinical experience has been with the Cancer Counselling Trust of which he is an Honorary Founding Member. He currently works part-time in a hospice bereavement service and runs a consultancy business offering support to individuals and agencies around life-threatening illness, loss and bereavement. He is also increasingly involved in training and supervising health and social care professionals working in psychosocial support.
Jacqui Stedmon-Taylor  Dr Jacqui Stedmon is a Lecturer at the University of Plymouth where she acts as Academic Director for the Doctorate Programme in Clinical Psychology.

She developed an interest in bereavement while working clinically in paediatrics and went on to co-found Jeremiah's Journey; a charitable organistion providing support for bereaved children and their families in the local area.

Currently Jacqui acts as Clinical Director for this service as well as being a director for the Bereavement Counselling Service for adults in Plymouth. Jacqui works as a family therapist and has combined her interests in narrative therapy with understanding grief in children. Her research interests are focused on understanding the meaning making process in younger people's grief from an attachment perspective.

In particular she thinks there is much to be learned about how attachment style might influence the telling of stories about bereavement for younger people and whether or not they construct an adaptive continuing bond with the deceased. This work is being prepared for publication. Jacqui is also co-editing a book on Reflective Practice in Psychotherapy and Counselling due out in 2009.