External Advisory Panel Member Biographies

Norm Buckley, MD, FRCPC

A faculty member since 1988, Dr. Norm Buckley is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anesthesia, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton. Dr. Buckley’s interests are pain, both acute and chronic.  He led the development and organization of the acute post-operative pain service for adult and pediatric patients, the pediatric sedation services, and was the Director of the Pain Management Centre at the Hamilton General Hospital from its opening in 2000 until 2014. He provides chronic pain care through the DeGroote Pain Clinic at McMaster University Medical Centre. Dr. Buckley established the Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre, and is Scientific Director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care.  The mission of the Institute is to improve the management of pain through dissemination of best practice information, to explore chronic pain, and to provide unique learning opportunities. He is Nominated Principal Investigator for the Chronic Pain Network, a 5 year $25 million Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) initiative to establish a national pain research network.  Dr. Buckley was also Operating Room Director, Chief of Anesthesia (Chedoke-McMaster) and Deputy Chief (Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation).  In 2017 Dr. Buckley completed 13 years as Chair of the Department of Anesthesia.

Christine Chambers, PhD, MA, BSc

Dr. Christine Chambers is a clinical psychologist, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Children’s Pain, and a Killam Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychology & Neuroscience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is also the Scientific Director at Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP) and conducts her research at the Centre for Pediatric Pain Research at the IWK Health Centre. As of January 2020, Dr. Chambers began her tenure as Scientific Director for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research’s Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health.  She is a former member of the Institute Advisory Board for the CIHR Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis and was previously an elected Council Member for the International Association for the Study of Pain Special Interest Group on Pain in Childhood (2014-2019). Dr. Chambers’ research focuses on developmental, psychological, and social influences on children’s pain, with a focus on the role of families in pediatric pain, patient engagement, and partnerships for knowledge mobilization. In 2018, Dr. Chambers was awarded the Merck Patients First Award for Excellence and Innovation in Patient-Centred Care. She was also the 2017 recipient of the Children’s Healthcare Canada’s Leadership Award and the 2016 recipient of the American Pain Society’s Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children’s Pain Relief.

Chloe Crosschild, MN, RN

Iitapii’tsaanskiiaki, Ms. Chloe Crosschild, is a Registered Nurse from the Blood Tribe/Kainai Nation, a First Nation band in southern Alberta. She completed a Bachelor and Master of Nursing at the University of Lethbridge and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in nursing at the University of British Columbia. Ms. Crosschild’s current research initiative explores the intersection between trauma, violence, and chronic pain. Ms. Crosschild has over 5 years of experience working in community health, having worked at the Canadian Mental Health Association as a Crisis Support Worker, Kainai Continuing Care as a Registered Nurse, Lethbridge Public Health as a Registered Nurse, and most recently, a Community Health Nurse at Standoff Community Health. Ms. Crosschild is also a Research Assistant on the EQUIP ED (Emergency Departments) at the University of British Columbia, and an Indigenous Advisor to the Nursing Curriculum in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Lethbridge. Ms. Crosschild is the recipient of the Alberta Indigenous Mentorship in Health Initiative (AIM-HI) Award (2019), the Faculty of Applied Science Graduate Award (2019), and the Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship (2019) from the University of British Columbia.

Anshu Gupta, O.T. Reg(SK)

Anshu Gupta is a Health Educator and Coordinator for the Chronic Conditions and Pain Program in the Chronic Disease Department, Saskatoon area of Saskatchewan Health Authority where she educates clients living with chronic pain and chronic conditions about self-management and its impact on life and disease management. She was previously a Senior Occupational Therapist at the Chronic Pain Centre in Saskatoon and Occupational Therapist in the Geriatric Unit, Day Hospital and Long Term Facility in Singapore. Ms. Gupta received her Diploma in Occupational Therapy from the Institute for the Physically Handicapped in New Delhi, India. She is a current member of the Saskatchewan Society of Occupational Therapists. She was one of the panelists for the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists’ Professional Issue Forum: Pain Management and Occupational Therapy in 2011. Ms. Gupta was involved with Saskatchewan registered nurses’ association (SRNA) Pain Management Practice Group (2013-2015).

Jennifer Harris, MD, BScB

Dr. Jennifer Harris is a family physician who currently provides primary care and incorporates addictions (opioid agonist therapy) and pain management in both outpatient and inpatient settings. She has completed extra training in addiction medicine and has received both the International Society of Addiction Medicine Certification and her Canadian College of Family Physicians fellowship in Addiction Medicine (2019).  Prior to this she has also completed extensive education in pain management, including most recently the Certification in Pain Management through the Canadian Academy of Pain Management (2018).  Dr. Harris is the Northwest Territories’ Associate Clinical Lead of Addictions, and involved in ongoing program development focused on addictions and vulnerable populations in the Northwest Territories. Dr. Harris has assisted in developing several programs including the Self-Management Pain Program (2013), Opioid Maintenance Therapy Program and Take Home Naloxone Program. She is also a member of the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM), the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine andthe International Society of Addiction Medicine, and was previously a member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.  

Gilles Lavigne, DMD, MSc, PhD, FRCD(c), FCAHS, hc, OC(m)

Dr. Gilles Lavigne is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Dental Medicine at the University of Montreal. He is also Director of the Pain, Sleep, and Trauma Laboratory and a Researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine at CIUSSS Nord Ile Montreal (formerly Sacre Coeur Hospital).  Dr. Lavigne is the Canada Research Chair on Pain, Sleep, and Traumatic Injuries. Dr. Gilles Lavigne is a Dentist and a leading authority on sleep disorders and interaction with pain. His research focuses on the psychophysiology and neurophysiology of sleep and pain, as well as orofacial pain, oral medicine, and the effects of analgesia on sleep. In 2018, Dr. Lavigne was appointed a member of the Order of Canada.

David Lussier, MD

Dr. David Lussier is a geriatrician, Director of the Pain Management Clinic at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. He completed a fellowship in Pain and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, and is the Founding Chairman of the Special Interest Group on Pain in Older Persons of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Dr. Lussier is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine of the University of Montreal, and Assistant Director of the Centre de recherché de l’Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal for knowledge transfer. He is a member of the Quebec End-of-Life Commission. Lussier has co-edited books on “Pharmacology of Pain” and “Adjuvant Analgesics”.

Justina Marianayagam, BHSc

Justina Marianayagam is a medical student at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and has lived/living experience with chronic pain. She completed a bilingual Bachelor of Health Sciences with Honours at the University of Ottawa as a Loran Scholar. Originally from Yellowknife, Ms. Marianayagam has worked in both urban and rural settings including Toronto, Halifax, Thunder Bay and Chettipalayam, India. She has been a noteworthy advocate for people living with pain, with a focus on transitional care from pediatric to adult pain care services. Ms. Marianayagam has worked as a Clinical Research Assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and a research and development assistant for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Presently, she works as a Research Assistant at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, is a Canadian Consultant for the Pain Treatment Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and a Patient Advisor for Health Quality Ontario. She is also a Board Member for Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP) working nationally to improve children's pain management through knowledge mobilization. In 2014, Ms. Marianayagam was awarded the Ontario Junior Citizen of the Year by the Government of Ontario. In 2017, she was awarded with the National Patient Scholarship from the International Association for the Study of Pain and the Stewart Wenning Scholarship from the Centre for Pediatric Research at the IWK Health Centre

Laura Murphy, PharmD, ACPR, BScPhm

Dr. Laura Murphy is a Registered Pharmacist and a Pharmacy Clinical Leader at the University Health Network. Her clinical practice is focused on working with patients who have chronic pain in the Comprehensive Integrated Pain Program at Toronto Rehab.  Dr. Murphy obtained her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Project ECHO Ontario Chronic Pain/Opioid Stewardship Team, the Pharmacists Mentoring in Addiction and Pain through the OpiATE Project at the Centre for Addition and Mental Health, the National Faculty of the National Opioid Use Guidelines Group of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care at McMaster University and the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists. Dr. Murphy has been an invited guest speaker at multiple events including the Canadian Pharmacist Conference, the Ontario Pharmacists Association Conference, and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network Conference. She has also lectured at the University of Toronto, where she has instructed on pain management, opioid stewardship, and motivational interviewing at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain- Interfaculty Pain Curriculum. Dr. Murphy recently received the Literary Award for a Therapeutic Review (2018) and the E. Amy Eck Award from the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists (2018).

Steven Passmore, DC, PhD

Dr. Passmore is a Chiropractor and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba. He also holds adjunct appointments in the College of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Manitoba, and the Research Department at New York Chiropractic College. His sub-specialization in Kinesiology is human perceptual learning and motor control. Dr. Passmore explores performance-based outcome measures related to chronic spine pain conditions. His research looks at quantifying human movement to assess pain based on how an individual is able to move. He previously practiced as a chiropractor at the Buffalo Veterans Affairs Medical Center (2007-09), where he treated Veterans with chronic pain conditions and complex comorbidities alongside a multidisciplinary team. Dr. Passmore has aided the Mount Carmel Clinic, a publicly subsidized clinic with a chiropractic program for people in poverty, through research and data collection since 2011, examining how patients with musculoskeletal pain respond to non-pharmacologic intervention. Dr. Passmore is a member of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, the Manitoba Chiropractors Association, the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology and the World Spine Care Research Committee. Dr. Passmore has been a co-author on clinical practice guidelines for the conservative management of neck and back pain.

Dean Penney MSW, BSW, BA, RSW

Dean Penney is the Clinical Lead at the Centre for Pain and Disability Management at the Eastern Regional Health Authority in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, where he has worked for the past 12 years. Mr. Penney has 24 years of experience as a social worker and obtained his Master of Social work with a clinical specialization at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Mr. Penney is a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Social Workers.

John Pereira, MDCM, CCFP, CIME, CEDIR VI

Dr. John Pereira is the Chief Executive Officer and Immediate Past President of the Pain Society of Alberta (PSA) and was a founding Co-Chair of the Alberta Pain Strategy. Dr. Pereira is a past Ronald Melzack Fellow of the McGill Pain Centre and has worked for over a decade as a physician at the Alberta Health Services Calgary Chronic Pain Centre. Dr. Pereira is a Certified Independent Medical Examiner (CIME) with the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners and a Certified Medicolegal Evaluator (CMLE/CEDIR VI) with the International Academy of Independent Medical Evaluators. He is an author of our country’s national guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of fibromyalgia, has spoken at conferences nationally and internationally, and has visited over forty pain centres worldwide to learn best practices. Dr. John Pereira was part of the interdisciplinary team that won a 2016 Health Quality Council of Alberta Patient Experience Award.

Patricia Poulin, PhD, C.Psych

Dr. Patricia Poulin is a Clinical Health and Rehabilitation Psychologist at the Ottawa Hospital Pain Clinic and Associate Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She holds an appointment as a Clinical Professor at the University of Ottawa within the Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and is a Principal Applicant for the Chronic Pain Network (CIHR Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research Network in Chronic Diseases). She has been working in chronic pain management since 2012 and has personal experience with chronic pain in her family. Dr. Poulin’s work focuses on the psychological and embodied aspects of a person’s pain experience. She uses an integrative approach in her clinical work, which includes the practice of mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy, and cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).

Kathleen L. Reid, RN, MN, NP

Kathleen Reid is a Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, she previously was the Nurse Practitioner with the Stollery Pediatric Chronic Pain clinic from 2007 – 2019. Ms. Reid obtained her Bachelor of Nursing Science degree at Queen’s University and her Master of Nursing degree at the University of Alberta Faculty of Nursing. Ms. Reid is a former co-chair and current member of the Pediatric Pain Management Committee at Stollery Children’s Hospital.  Her research portfolio includes development of an e-book for families whose children have chronic pain, understanding the parental perceptions of the quality of their child’s postoperative pain management, development of Chronic Pain 35, an accredited high school course for teens with chronic pain. In addition, she has authored and co-authored four book chapters and developed an e-book for families whose children have chronic pain. In 2017, Ms. Reid was recipient of the 150 Nurses for Canada from the Canadian Nurses Association and was third place winner in 2016 for the Nursing Hero contest run by Hospital News.

Michael Sangster, PT
MBA, BScPT, DPT

Dr. Michael Sangster is a Physiotherapist and Clinical Specialist in pain science. He is a graduate of the Dalhousie University School of Physiotherapy, the Master of Business Administration program at Saint Mary’s University, and the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Utica Collage. Dr. Sangster is the Professional Practice Leader – Physiotherapy, and the Physiotherapist on the Complex Pain team at the IWK Health Centre. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at the Dalhousie University School of Physiotherapy, the Past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Nova Scotia College of Physiotherapists, and a founding member of the Pain Science Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. In addition, Dr. Sangster is a contributing chapter author to the Oxford Textbook of Pediatric Pain, a TEDx speaker, and a co-developer of a module of the online pediatric pain curriculum at SickKids in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Sangster is the recipient of the Award of Distinction for outstanding commitment, invaluable contribution and dedicated long-term service from the Nova Scotia College of Physiotherapists (2015).

Colleen Varcoe, PhD, RN

Dr. Colleen Varcoe is a professor in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia (UBC), adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, faculty associate at the University of Western Ontario, faculty associate at the Peter Wall Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and adjunct associate professor in the Sydney School of Nursing at the University of Sydney in Australia. Dr. Varcoe is a national and international speaker on social justice and ethics. Dr. Varcoe’s research focuses on violence and inequity, with an emphasis on violence against women and Indigenous women’s health, which aims to promote ethical practice and policy in the context of violence and inequity. She has particular interest in the intersections among trauma, violence, inequity, substance use, and chronic pain. In 2017 she received the John McNeil Excellence in Health Research Mentorship Award and the Killam Research Award (Science Category).

Gerald W. Zamponi, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS

Dr. Zamponi is Senior Associate Dean for Research in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. Dr. Zamponi's research addresses how ion channels contribute to neurological disorders such as chronic pain, with the goal of developing strategies to regulate ion channel function for therapeutic intervention. His work also deciphers the functional connectomics of brain circuits that process pain signals. In addition to having been an Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions Scientist, he is a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Neurobiology and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He also previously served as the Head of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Dr. Zamponi is the recipient of numerous awards, including most recently the Molecular Pain Award from the Association for the Study of Neurons and Disease (Oct 2018).