Molly Carlile AM is CEO of South East Palliative Care in Victoria. Previously Molly was General Manager of Integrated Cancer Services, Palliative Care Services and Manager of Arts in Healthcare for the Olivia Newton John Cancer and Wellness Centre, also at Austin Health. 

Molly calls herself the “Deathtalker”®. She lives her motto “The more we talk, the less we fear”, by encouraging informed conversations about death and grief in the community. To this end Molly has embraced the arts as a vehicle for creating a safe space for people to have these conversations and as a result has become a regular media commentator, author and playwright.

Her books, “Jelly Bean’s Secret” and “Sometimes Life Sucks” have been widely used to introduce the concept of death to children and to address the complex needs of young adults. 

The plays she has written with Alan Hopgood  “Four Funerals in One Day” and “The Empty Chair” explore death, euthanasia and dementia and both continue to tour widely. 

Her new book “The Death Talker” is being published internationally by New Holland in October 2016 and is a plain English  ‘go to’ guide on everything to do with death, grief, funerals and rituals. 

Molly is Ambassador for “Dying to Know Day” in August each year as well as “Death Over Dinner”. Molly also sits on the Management Committee of the Natural Death Advocacy Network.

Molly was the recipient of a 2008 Churchill Fellowship, the inaugural Arts and Health Australia Award for Health Promotion in 2009, International Journal of Palliative Nursing, Educator of the Year Award in London in 2012, The Minister’s Award for “Outstanding Achievement by an individual in Healthcare at the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards in 2012 and the National Leadership in Nursing and Midwifery Award in 2012.

In 2014 her work was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, being awarded an Order of Australia “for significant service to community health through seminal contributions to organisations providing palliative care and to the performing arts”.

Molly Carlile is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing Australia, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Associate Fellow of the Australian College of Health Service Managers.