Hanne Bakelants

Hanne Bakelants obtained her PhD in Social Health Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in 2024. Her doctoral research focused on the development, implementation and evaluation of the VUB as a Compassionate University. Through action research and developmental evaluation, she mapped the processes and underlying mechanisms of change, as well as the barriers and opportunities, that influence the development of Compassionate Communities.

As a postdoctoral researcher, Hanne is involved in the EU-Cowork project, which focuses on the development of compassionate workplaces surrounding serious illness, grief, loss and caregiving. The emphasis here is on a co-creative process in collaboration with the involved workplaces.

Hanne is also affiliated with COCO, an interdisciplinary research consortium of eight research groups that strives, through research and knowledge exchange, for a more compassionate society in which communities have the capacity and knowledge to provide care for their members in times of serious illness, dying, death and loss. Additionally, she is a member of the End-of-Life Care Research Group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Ghent University.

Prior to the start of her PhD, Hanne obtained a Master of Educational Sciences from KU Leuven (2019) and a Master of Globalisation and Development Studies from Maastricht University (2020).