Venerable Mary Aikenhead Oration
23 July 2025

Maggie Doherty is the Director of the Centre for the Art of Living and Dying Well at St Mary's University in London, where she has transformed an award-winning digital initiative into a respected centre for research, training and public engagement. The Centre's podcast series has been named among the top three on death and dying and has been recognised by The Guardian as "contributing to society's communal well-being.”

With extensive experience in senior communications roles in the UK and internationally, Maggie previously served as Press Secretary to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor and worked with him in Rome during the historic Conclave that elected Pope Francis. She has also worked for the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, providing strategic counsel on digital strategy and issues management.

Maggie has an MSc in Digital Health and is passionate about the role that digital can play in end of life and bereavement care. She has spoken on AI in healthcare and played a key role in the groundbreaking “Voices of the Dying: Internet and End of Life" research report which explored over 110,000 online conversations around death, dying and bereavement.

Maggie is a trustee at St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, a hospice founded in 1905 by five Sisters of Charity who journeyed from Ireland to London's East End to found a mission for the poor, the sick and the dying. The Venerable Mary Aitkenhead’s motto to "give to the poor for love, what the rich could buy with money" is a philosophy that continues to inspire Maggie's work today.