Division of Palliative Medicine

Department of Medicine

Mary Ellen Macdonald, PhD

Professor

MaryEllenMacdonaldbyOwenEgan
Division of Palliative Medicine , Department of Medicine

Fax: 902-473-6602
Mailing Address: 
Division of Palliative Medicine QEII, 1276 South Park Street, Suite 515 Bethune Building, Halifax, NS B3H 2Y9
 

Related information

Research interests

Dr. Macdonald’s research program focuses on palliative and end-of-life care, death literacy, and grief literacy. She uses public health and community-based research approaches, and ethnographic methodologies. She is working with local, national, and international colleagues on the following projects:

  • Implementing a tool to enhance person-centered care in end-of-life and intensive care settings (NS Health TRIC Grant)
  • Engaging young people in policy-making around end-of-life care (Health Canada)
  • Engaged youth: Advancing knowledge on the contributions of young people in the development of practices, policies and research that affect them (SSHRC)
  • Grief and grief support needs in Canada: Testing the public health model of bereavement support (CIHR Project Grant)
  • Queering grief: Grief literacy for LGBTQ+ (SSHRC)
  • Building Compassionate Schools: A Pilot Project to Strengthen Grief Literacy with Youth in Nova Scotia (VOICE)

Appointments

  • J & W Murphy Foundation Endowed Chair in Palliative Care
  • Professor, Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University
  • Nova Scotia Health Affiliate Scientist (Research)
  • Adjunct, Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, McGill University
  • Affiliate member, Institute for Health Sciences Education, McGill University
  • Core Investigator, VOICE: Views on Interdisciplinary Childhood Ethics

Education and training

  • New Investigator, Family Caregiving in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (University of Victoria)
  • Post Doctoral Fellow, Pediatric Palliative Care (Montreal Children’s Hospital)
  • PhD, Medical Anthropology (McGill University)
  • Masters, Social Anthropology (Dalhousie University)
  • BA, Cultural Anthropology (McGill University)

Brief bio

Mary Ellen Macdonald, PhD, is a social scientist (medical anthropologist) with an active research program focused on death and grief literacy. She holds the J & W Murphy Foundation Endowed Chair in Palliative Care with the mandate of contributing to palliative and end-of-life care research and practice across Nova Scotia. She has been researching death, dying, and grief for over two decades, and is particularly passionate about supporting death and grief literacy across diverse communities. She writes about this work in academic publications and at GriefMatters.

Awards

  • 2022 to present: J & W Murphy Foundation Endowed Chair in Palliative Care
  • 2017-2019: FRQS, Chercheur-Boursier Junior 2
  • 2011-2019: FRQS, Chercheur-Boursier Junior 1

Service / activities

  • Co-founder and Co-director of the national charity, Grief Matters
  • Palliative Care Network Council, Nova Scotia Health
  • National Consultation Committee, Canadian Grief Alliance
  • Senior editor, Canadian Journal of Public Health

Professional societies

  • Canadian Public Health Association
  • European Bereavement Network
  • European Association of Palliative Care
  • Public Health Palliative Care International
  • International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement

Public and media engagements

Selected recent publications

  • Macdonald ME, Salmaniw S, McNeil-Campbell L, D'Intino, AF, Sawchuk L, Corbett C, Lawrence L. Developing a tool to advance person-centred care in hospice: The little things are the big things, Palliative Care and Social Practice, 2026;20. DOI: 10.1177/26323524261423215
  • Macdonald ME, Lunny JL, Carnevale FA. Announcing a new authorship policy at CJPH: Consideration of young people in research. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2025;116:340-343. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-025-01066-w
  • Cadell S, Wright D, Dosani N, Cherblanc J, Breen L, Aoun S, Sequeira L, Kortes-Miller K, Arya A, Anthony K, Boudreau C, Prince H, Thompson M, Macdonald, ME. Grief and grief support needs in Canada: A mixed methods protocol. Palliative Care and Social Practice, 2025;19. doi:10.1177/26323524251334180
  • Mellett J, Macdonald ME. Medical assistance in dying in hospice: A qualitative study. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 2024;14:e1497-e1502. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2021-003191
  • Sofronas M, Carnevale FA, Macdonald ME, Bitzas V, Wright DK. “We are not the person we will be when these things happen:” Reflections on personhood from an ethnography of neuropalliative care. Nursing Inquiry 2024:e12646 https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12646
  • Liu K, Siedlikowski S, Mellett J, Carnevale FA, Macdonald ME. Young people's perspectives on assisted dying and its potential inclusion of minors. Children & Society, 2023;37:1081–1101. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12748
  • Hordyk SR, Macdonald ME, Brassard P; Okalik L, Papigatuk L. No time to grieve: Inuit loss experiences and grief practices in Nunavik, Quebec. Transcultural Psychiatry, 2022;60(6): 917-928. doi:10.1177/13634615221135423
  • Breen L, Kawashima D, Joy K, Cadell S, Roth D, Chow A, Macdonald ME. Grief Literacy: A call to action for Compassionate Communities. Death Studies, 2022;46(2):425-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1739780
  • Cadell S, Reid Lambert M, Davidson D, Greco C, Macdonald ME. Memorial tattoos: Advancing continuing bonds theory. Death Studies, 2022;46(1):132-139. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1716888