Els van Wijngaarden (1976) works as a lecture and postdoc researcher at the University for Humanistic Studies and the research institute Tao of Care. Her research concerns the following topics: old age, living with dementia, finitude, death and dying, and death wishes. In 2016, she completed her PhD on the lived experiences of older people who consider their lives to be completed and no longer worth living (funded by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). Formerly she graduated cum laude in Religious Studies at VU University Amsterdam with specialisation in existential counselling in organisations.