Clicky

Early Career Forum Mentors »
Skip to main content

APS Scientific Meeting | April 3-6, 2019 | Milwaukee, WI

Combating the Opioid Epidemic through Innovations in the Treatment of Pain

Meet the 2019 Mentors of the Early Career Forum!

Inna Belfer, MD PhD

Program Director | Basic and Mechanistic Research Branch, NCCIH

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Program review of pain grant applications, new pain programs development
  • Words of Wisdom: Do what you enjoy, enjoy what you do

 

Amanda Brandow, DO MS

Associate Professor of Pediatrics | Medical College of Wisconsin

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I am an academic pediatric hematologist and physician-scientist who conducts clinical/translational pain research in patients with sickle cell disease. My research is focused on understanding the biology of acute and chronic sickle cell pain and is funded by the NIH/NHLBI and regional foundations.
  • Words of Wisdom: You find your true passion in medicine and research, the rest will come much more easily.

 

Claudia Campbell, PhD

Associate Professor | Johns Hopkins University

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Oversee clinical research projects, oversee QST laboratories, write, analyze data, mentor
  • Words of Wisdom: Tackle your most important thing to do that day as the first thing you do when you get to the office – be intentional and don’t procrastinate

 

Robert C. Coghill, PhD

Senior Scientist & Professor | Cincinnati Children’s Hospital

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Mentor, scientist, and procurer of grants
  • Words of Wisdom: Flow, momentum, and slack are crucial for success

 

Luana Colloca, MD PhD MS

Associate Professor | University of Maryland

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I lead an NIH-funded team investigating placebo and nocebo effects, social learning, and acute post-operative pain. My duties and responsibilities range from mentoring students at any levels, publishing, writing grant applications, teaching, providing service locally, nationally and internationally.
  • Words of Wisdom: The society deserves to know what we are doing and how this can help improve healing.

 

Susan Dorsey, PhD RN FAAN

Professor and Chair | University of Maryland Baltimore

  • Roles and Responsibilities: As department chair, I mentor faculty, staff and trainees and provide infrastructure support. In my research I use animal models and clinical chronic pain cohorts in an effort to identify novel, non-addictive targets for pain management.
  • Words of Wisdom: Be open to serendipity and don’t be afraid to take risks.

 

Patrick M. Dougherty, PhD 

Professor and Associate Division Head for Research | The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I direct an active lab, provide administrative leadership for research in our Division and teach medical school neuroanatomy

 

Gregory Dussor, PhD

Associate Professor | University of Texas at Dallas

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Running a preclinical research laboratory focused on the understanding of headache, teaching 1 full course per semester, serving as associate editor at multipe journals, contributing to 2 startup companies
  • Words of Wisdom: Management is the hardest part of being a PI; find opportunities to practice managing people/projects/budgets early and often

 

Robert Edwards, PhD MSPH

Associate Professor | Brigham & Women’s Department of Anesthesiology

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I do about 75% clinical research, 20% clinical work, 5% teaching.

 

Roger Fillingim, PhD

Distinguished Professor | University of Florida

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I lead a research program examining individual differences in pain and have served in local and national leadership role.

 

Patrick H. Finan, PhD

Assistant Professor | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I am building a research program in a fully soft money environment. As such, we are reliant on grant funding and must balance the demands of study execution with manuscript writing and grant writing in order to make our program sustainable and impactful.

 

Jennifer Haythornthwaite, PhD

Professor | Johns Hopkins University

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I am a clinical researcher (psychologist) who studies how people cope with pain and conducts clinical trials of non-pharmacological treatments. I also am very interested in facilitating careers of young investigators and mentoring, particularly how we all can become better mentors.
  • Words of Wisdom: Find something that intrigues you, gives your work meaning, and have fun

 

Mohab Ibrahim, MD PhD

Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Pharmacology | The University of Arizona

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I have clinical, research, and administrative responsibilities. I’m an anesthesiologist and a pain physician. I direct both the chronic pain clinic and the chronic pain fellowship program. I also run a laboratory focused on chronic pain.
  • Words of Wisdom: Do something you actually enjoy

 

Mark P. Jensen, PhD

Professor and Vice Chair for Research | Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I am the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Pain. I also have an active pain research program that focuses on the evaluation and mechanisms of psychosocial pain treatments, and mostly funded by NIH.

 

Ru-Rong Ji, PhD

Professor | Duke University Medical Center

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I run a lab to study chronic pain mechanisms in animal models, with specific focus on neuro-immune interactions. I supervise fellows, graduate students, and junior faculty. I also serve as co-Director of Center for Translational Pain Medicine and Scientific Committee of APS.

 

Robert D. Kerns, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Psychology | Yale University

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Health services research, health policy, research mentoring, and career advising.
  • Words of Wisdom: “Lean in.” Seek ways to meet people whose work you admire. Volunteer.

 

Rita Merman, MD

Associate Professor | UH Cleveland Medical Center

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Chief of the Division of Acute Interventional Perioperative Pain and Regional Anesthesia

 

Andrea Nackley, PhD

Associate Professor | Duke University

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I am a translational pain researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology. My roles include 1) PI on NIH-funded clinical and basic science grants, 2) mentor to junior faculty, postdocs and grad/undergrad students, 3) reviewer for NIH grants and manuscripts, and 4) Chair of the APS Early Career Forum.
  • Words of Wisdom: Find your unique passion and voice, and appreciate that this is an iterative, life-long process that evolves with each failure and success.

 

Vitaly Napadow, PhD LAc

Director | Center for Integrative Pain NeuroImaging (CiPNI)
Associate Professor | Harvard Medical School

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I am a Principal Investigator on multiple research studies and lead a Lab of about 10 post-docs, research assistants, and coordinators in pain neuroimaging studies. I am also a part-time acupuncturist at the Pain Management Center of BWH
  • Words of Wisdom: Find your niche, follow your hedgehog

 

Tonya M. Palermo, PhD

Professor, Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine | Univ. of Washington School of Medicine
Adjunct, Pediatrics & Psychiatry | Univ. of Washington School of Medicine
Associate Director | Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development, Seattle Children’s Research Institute

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I am a pediatric psychologist and serve in multiple research, administrative, and academic roles including directing a research center, directing a research program on psychosocial treatments for pediatric chronic pain, serving in leadership and editorial activities, and training and mentorship.
  • Words of Wisdom: Live boldly.

 

Theodore Price, PhD

Professor | University of Texas at Dallas

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I run an NIH funded research laboratory, teach undergraduate courses and am Neuroscience Program Head in my School.
  • Words of Wisdom: Plant your flag

 

Jennifer Rabbitts, MD

Associate Professor and Attending Anesthesiologist | Seattle Children’s Hospital and University of Washington

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I am a pediatric anesthesiologist and pain physician, and lead a clinical research program which aims to understand and improve long-term pain and health outcomes in adolescents undergoing major surgery. I also enjoy serving in mentorship, leadership, and service roles.
  • Words of Wisdom: You will achieve success and enjoyment in your work if you pursue research you are passionate about with collaborators and mentors you enjoy!

 

Barbara Rakel, PhD RN FAAN

Professor | University of Iowa

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I currently have 3 NIH funded studies and am a P20 Center Director for Advancing Multimorbidity Science. My research focuses on evaluating the efficacy of non-pharmacologic pain strategies to treat or prevent chronic pain. I teach Measurement in Health Research to PhD and Postdoc students.
  • Words of Wisdom: Interdisciplinary team science will take you far.

 

M. Carrington Reid, MD PhD

Associate Professor | Weill Cornell Medicine

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Dr. Cary Reid is an Associate Professor and Director of the Office of Geriatric Research at Weill Cornell Medicine. His research focuses on improving the management of pain in older adults. Other areas of interest include the epidemiology and treatment of substance use disorders in older persons.

 

E. Alfonso Romero-Sandoval, MD PhD

Associate Professor of Anesthesiology | Wake Forest University School of Medicine

  • Roles and Responsibilities: My primary role is conducting research. I supervise and direct projects. I coordinate activities with collaborators. I mentor postdocts, graduate/undergrad students, residents. I teach a little. I devote a large proportion of my time to read and write, peer-review papers and grant applications.
  • Words of Wisdom: If you do not enjoy what you are doing, you most likely will not succeed in that area.

 

Andrew Russo, PhD

Professor | University of Iowa

  • Roles and Responsibilities: I lead a research team studying migraine with approaches ranging from epigenetics to mouse behavior. I am also course director for an MD/PA course that melds physiology and genetics and co-author of an undergraduate anatomy and physiology textbook.
  • Words of Wisdom: Keep it fun.

 

David J. Tauben, MD FACP

Chief, Division of Pain Medicine | University of Washington

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Role includes clinical, education, and research support across multi-site program. Curriculum gaps need be identified for students, residents and fellows; CME for university and community. Enable research with pain-relevant colleagues, mentoring access, grant opportunities and admin support.
  • Words of Wisdom: Defining and develop career focus is not linear. Find a path can lead you to new discoveries about yourself, and the art and science of pain medicine.

 

Mark S. Wallace, MD

Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology | University of California San Diego

  • Roles and Responsibilities: Dr. Wallace is currently the Chair, Division of Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego. He has over 25 years experience with clinical care, research and training pain fellows.