Vinciane von Westphalen was born in Paris in 1968. After graduating from high school with a degree in economics, she studied speech therapy at the University of ParisVI. At the same time, she continued her training in youth work with the Ministère de la jeunesse et des sports. She has worked both self-employed and in interdisciplinary teams in a psychiatric hospital (Sainte-Anne) and in institutions for children and young people (Claude Bernard). In Germany, she first learned German and successfully completed the “Großes Sprachdiplom” in 2009. She holds a Master’s degree in Coaching, Organizational Consulting and Supervision from the University of Kassel with a focus on the socio-cultural differences between Germans and French and their effects at the workplace.

At the same time, she became involved in Malteser Hilfsdienst e.V., initially at a local level, while still working three days a week in Paris. She originally worked in a visiting service and a project with addicts in Frankfurt am Main.
Between 2000 and 2009, her four children were born and she reduced her work as a speech therapist while increasing her commitment to Malteser.
She then increasingly expanded her involvement with Malteser and was the Malteser representative in Frankfurt am Main from 2003 to 2015. She is a Dame of Honor and Devotion Grand Cross in the Order of Malta.She is in the Conseil d’Administration of Ordre de Malte of Luxembourg and since October 2023 she is the Ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in Germany.

In 2022, she was awarded the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany (awarded on 30.12.2022, presentation of the certificate and medal on 30.06.2023 in Wiesbaden).