Mayday Fund Announces 2018-19 Winners of The Pain and Society Fellowship

Twelve pain experts selected to prestigious Fellowship program focused on communications and advocacy for improved pain care

NEW YORK (March 9, 2018) – The MAYDAY Fund today announced the selection of twelve experts in pain science and care to be Fellows of The Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship: Communicating Science & Improving Care. The Fellows come from across the United States and Canada, with a wide range of pain expertise, including anesthesiology, pediatric care, headache and orofacial pain, pain science and psychology.

The Fellows were selected from more than 55 applicants by a multi-disciplinary Advisory Committee, comprising leaders working on pain related issues in the U.S. and Canada.

The Fellows will attend a four-day, intensive workshop in Washington, D.C., where they will learn skills to effectively communicate and advocate for the translation of scientific research and evidence-based best practices in pain care and management. Following the workshop, the Fellows will receive follow-up coaching support to pursue their advocacy goals.

“The need for the expert voices of pain researchers and clinicians to improve pain care in the U.S. and Canada is greater than ever,” said Christina Spellman, the MAYDAY Fund’s executive director. “The Mayday Fellowship will help this year’s Fellows develop the skills to bring their knowledge of the latest in pain research and evidence-based care to the public, healthcare practitioners and policymakers. Their messages will help shape conversations about access to care, pain research, emerging pain treatments, clinical practice improvements, disparities in care, and the progress that is being made in knowledge about pain and its impact.”

The new class of Fellows will join 60 experts from the previous Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship: A Media & Policy Fellows Initiative which operated from 2004 through 2015.

"The Mayday Fund leadership is excited to welcome the 2018-19 Fellows, who join an impressive group of experts from prior fellowship years,” said Caroline N. Sidnam, a MAYDAY Fund Trustee. “We believe that public education and the support of quality science are essential to improving the way that pain is understood and treated.”

The 2018-19 Fellows are:

• Katherine Barsness, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Surgery and Medical Education, Ann and Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

• Robert Bonakdar, MD, FACN, FAAFP, Director of Pain Management, Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine

• Fiona Campbell, BSc, MD, FRCA Department of Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children; Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesia, University of Toronto

• Rachael Coakley, PhD, Director, Clinical Innovation and Outreach in Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine; Assistant Professor in Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital

• Alexandre DaSilva DDS, DMedSc, Associate Professor, Headache & Orofacial Pain Effort (H.O.P.E.) Lab, Department of Biologic and Materials Sciences, University of Michigan School of Dentistry 

• Andrea D. Furlan, MD, PhD, Scientist, Institute for Work & Health; Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto; Senior Scientist and Physician staff, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network (UHN)

• Robert Gereau, PhD, Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology; Director, Washington University Pain Center Washington University School of Medicine

• David K. Lam, MD, DDS, PhD, FRCDC, DABOMS, Professor & Chairman, Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery; Professor, Department of Surgery; Director, LITElab, Stony Brook University; Surgeon-Scientist, Stony Brook Cancer Center

• Michael Leong, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Stanford Pain Management Center

• Cheryl Stucky, PhD, Marvin Wagner Endowed Professor Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy; Director, Pain Division, Neuroscience Research Center, Medical College of Wisconsin

• David Walton, BScPT, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor Western University of Canada

• Sharon Wrona DNP, RN-BC, PNP, PMHS, AP-PMN, Administrative Director Comprehensive Pain & Palliative Care Services, Nationwide Children's Hospital

The four-day workshop in Washington, D.C., in June 2018 will be led by trainers and coaches from Burness, a public interest communications firm that works with non-profit organizations globally to highlight solutions that can be used to improve the human condition and advance social change.

The full Fellowship Advisory Committee includes:

• Christine Chambers, PhD, RPsych, Canada Research Chair in Children’s Pain; Killam Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Psychology & Neuroscience, Dalhousie University & IWK Health Centre; 2012 Mayday Fellow

• Karen Davis, PhD, Professor, Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto; Head, Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour-Systems Neuroscience, Krembil Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network; 2013 Mayday Fellow

• Renee Manworren, PhD, APRN, FAAN, Posy and Fred Love Chair in Nursing Research, Director of Nursing Research and Professional Practice, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine; 2012 Mayday Fellow

• Samuel McLean, MD, MPH, Jeffrey Houpt Distinguished Investigator and Director, Institute for Trauma Recovery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Cary Reid, MD, PhD, The Irving Sherwood Wright Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of Cornell’s Translational Research Institute on Pain in Later Life, Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College

• Gregory Terman, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Washington; 2011 Mayday Fellow 

For more details on the fellowship, please visit www.MaydayFellows.org.

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