Dr Rachel Coghlan is currently an Associate at Johns Hopkins University Center for Humanitarian Health and is a member of the APHN Council.
What is a recent achievement you are particularly proud of?
On a professional level, being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in Non-Profit Leadership to spend time at Johns Hopkins University is a recent highlight. I spent 5 months in 2023 in Baltimore engaging in dialogue with amazing people from around the world on the importance of palliative care in humanitarian crises and how we can collaborate to advocate for palliative care to be a priority of humanitarian organisations.
On a personal level, my family and I moved out of Melbourne to the country a couple of years ago. It’s a lot colder where we live now. This year I have mastered lighting an indoor woodfire like a pro. It’s incredibly satisfying and therapeutic!
What’s your favorite book or movie, and why?
The Princess Bride (the movie). I have found this movie hilarious ever since I was young. But I have also come to love it again in recent years for its reference to death which I think is very apt for all of us working in palliative care. Billy Crystal, playing the traditional healer, remarks about poor, tortured, on-the-verge-of-death, Wesley, ‘It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.’ We can never abandon someone or write them off, even as they lay dying 🙂
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Bette Davis Eyes, Kim Carnes