Stephen Connor is the executive director of the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), the global alliance of national and regional hospice and palliative care organizations advocating for hospice palliative care development worldwide. He has worked in palliative care continuously for the past 40 years as a researcher, licensed clinical medical psychologist, consultant, author, educator, advocate, and executive including 11 years in the leadership of the US National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. For the last 16 years Stephen has worked on global palliative care development in over 25 countries in Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. He is a trustee of the International Children's Palliative Care Network, a board member for the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation, on the Scientific Advisory Board of the (US) National Palliative Care Research Center, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pain & Symptom Management. He is a member and former chair of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, & Bereavement and former board member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling. He has published over 100 peer reviewed journal articles, reviews, reports, and book chapters on issues related to palliative care for patients and their families and is the author of Hospice: Practice, Pitfalls, and Promise (1998), Hospice and Palliative Care: The Essential Guide (2009) and co-editor of the WHPCA/WHO Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End-of-Life (2014).