During the ISA/ISPID Joint Conference in Baltimore, MD, USA, the ISPID Health Educator Award 2012 was extended to Joyce Epstein.

Joyce trained as a psychologist at the University of Manitoba in Canada and worked for 20 years in social science and project management in Canada and the USA before moving to the UK.

  • 20 years with the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), joined as Director in April 1991
  • Involved in the launch of the Reduce the Risk campaign, which recommended that babies be placed on their backs to sleep. She was also pivotal in persuading the British government to launch their own national Back to Sleep campaign. These campaigns led to an incredible reduction in cot deaths, saving the lives of an estimated 19,000 babies.
  • ISPID Board member
  • Leading cot death educator in England
  • Hosted the SIDS International Conference at Portsmouth, UK in 2008
  • Retired in 2011

She now advises on a number of academic, government and charity boards, and is having enormous fun helping care for two fantastic grandchildren.