Hanka Dekker

Hanka Dekker is Executive Director of VKS (Vereniging voor mensen met een Stofwisselingsziekte), the Dutch patient organization representing people affected by more than 160 different metabolic diseases, based in Zwolle, Netherlands, a role she has held since 1997.

Ms. Dekker represents patients and families at a European level as a European Patient Advocacy Group (ePAG) representative for rare hereditary metabolic disorders with EURORDIS, and is affiliated with United for Metabolic Diseases (UMD) and the Metabolic Diseases European Reference Network (MetabERN), where she serves as Head of Patient Organisation. She has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications on patient engagement and treatment-eligibility frameworks in rare metabolic disease care.