Meet Our Hub Leads and Knowledge Brokers
Our Hubs play a vital role in mobilizing research and evidence-based clinical practices, facilitating institutional change, increasing awareness, and fostering a sense of urgency. Hub Leads and Knowledge Brokers work together to advance children’s pain management in their own institutions and support SKIP Affiliates and other children’s healthcare institutions.
Want to make your institution a better place? Reach out to one of our Hub Leads or Knowledge Brokers!
SKIP Eastern Canada Hub
Allen Finley is a pediatric anesthesiologist and an internationally-recognized expert in pediatric pain research and culturally-diverse environments. Dr. Finley holds the Dr. Stewart Wenning Chair Endowed Chair in Pediatric Pain Management at the IWK Health Centre, is the Director of the IWK Complex Pain Clinic and is a Professor of Anesthesia and Psychology at Dalhousie University. His research interests are pain management and pain service delivery for children both nationally and internationally.
Jordan Sheriko is a pediatric rehabilitation medicine physician and medical director of Rehabilitation Services at IWK Health. He is an assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine at Dalhousie University. He has a broad research program dedicated to advancing the lives of children and youth living with physical disability. He has a particular interest in improving pain and function in childhood disability with ongoing research projects exploring pain in cerebral palsy and health system transformation to improve models of care.
Laura Gibson joins the SKIP team with a background in
health policy and has experience working in the areas of research, emergency response planning, long-term and continuing care, as well as in-patient acute care. She holds a Master’s degree in Political Science with a specialization in Health Policy Administration and has led province-wide policy development in her previous role at Alberta Health Services. Laura’s passion is for finding practical solutions to complex problems, her goal is to facilitate meaningful and enduring change in the Canadian health care system.
SKIP Francophone Hub
The Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine (CHU Sainte-Justine) is the largest mother and child centre in Canada. This university health centre is affiliated with the Université de Montréal, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Evelyne D.Trottier is a Pediatric Emergency Physician at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal and an Associate Professor at Université de Montréal. Her primary interests are procedural and acute pain management and knowledge translation. She is currently working on different studies on pain and distress management. She is responsible for the development of clinical practice guidelines on the www.urgencehsj.ca website for the pediatric emergency departments, is a past member of the Canadian Paediatric Society Acute Care Committee and an actual member of the CPS Paediatric Emergency Medicine Section. Her main interest is improving the patient experience through its care.
Marie-Joëlle Doré-Bergeron is a paediatrician at CHU Sainte-Justine and an Assistant professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the Université de Montréal. She is the co-director of the chronic pain clinic and the co-director of the complex care program at CHU Sainte-Justine. She is interested in the improvement of procedural pain management for children being treated in hospital and in increasing the availability of resources for children with chronic pain, paying a special attention to resources available for French-speaking Canadians. She also has a particular interest in increasing the recognition of pain in children with severe neurological disabilities in the medical community.
Patricia Laforce has been a registered nurse since 2013. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing science from Laval University and a master’s degree in nursing science from the University of Montreal. She has been interested in procedural pain management for several years. As part of her master’s thesis, she observed the effects of therapeutic clown distraction on children’s pain and anxiety during vaccinations. She worked for 4 years in pediatrics at the CSSS Saint-Jérôme and joined the CHU Sainte-Justine team in 2017. She has developed expertise in surgery-traumatology and severe burns. Since May 2021, she has joined the Tout doux team (an institutional comfort initiative aimed at improving procedural pain and distress management) within which she plays a leadership role in the training of healthcare professionals and is responsible for the deployment of the project across the hospital.
SKIP Central Canada Hub
The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), affiliated with the University of Toronto, is Canada’s most research-intensive hospital and the largest centre dedicated to improving children’s health in the country.
Fiona Campbell is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto, Director of the Chronic Pain Program in the Department of Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, and co-director of the SickKids Pain Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children. Fiona is Past-President of the Canadian Pain Society and Co-chair of Health Canada’s Canadian Pain Task Force, through which she is an advocate for a Canadian National Pain Strategy.
Jennifer Stinson is a Nurse Clinician-Scientist in Child Health Evaluative Sciences, a Nurse Practitioner in the Chronic Pain Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Pain Management, Research and Education and Professor (Status-Only) at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Dr. Stinson’s clinical work focuses on working with children and youth with chronic pain and their families as part of an interdisciplinary pain team in the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at SickKids.
Elisabeth (Lis) Huang is the Knowledge Mobilization Specialist at the SickKids Pain Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Within the SickKids Pain Centre, she is also the Co-Chair of the Education / Knowledge Translation Committee. Prior to working at SickKids, she was the Bilingual Knowledge Mobilization Specialist with Research Impact Canada. She looks forward to collaborating with the team to improve pediatric pain prevention and treatment.
SKIP Children's Healthcare Canada Hub
For Canadian leaders in children’s healthcare, Children’s Healthcare Canada is the only national association that enables local improvements and contributes to system-wide change by building communities across the full continuum of care.
Emily Gruenwoldt is the President & CEO of Children’s Healthcare Canada and Executive Director of the Pediatric Chairs of Canada (PCC), positions she has held for four years. Previous to these roles, Emily spent over ten years with the Canadian Medical Association in various Director-level roles including Professional Affairs, Physician Leadership Development, and Strategy & Innovation. Emily has significant health care governance experience having served two terms as a board member for each of Care for Home & Health Services and The Ottawa Hospital, and one term at Arnprior Regional Health. Emily is also co-founder of Emerging Health Leaders.
Catherine Riddell is the Manager, Heath Networks at Children’s Healthcare Canada and joins the SKIP team with many years of experience supporting children’s healthcare. Catherine has significant experience in pediatric clinical research as well as in facilitating the use of administrative data for performance management, quality improvement, and research. She also brings skills and knowledge in clinical operations, data management and privacy, and knowledge translation. Catherine is excited to collaborate withe the team on the mission to improve children’s pain management.
SKIP Western Canada Hub
Samina Ali is Professor of Pediatrics and an Adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alberta, as well as a practicing pediatric emergency physician. She holds provincial and national funding for the study of children’s acute care and emergencies. Her research program is focused on improving children’s pain and distress, mainly as it relates to emergency department visits and procedures. She focuses her efforts on improving the pain experience for children in both hospitals and the community by determining what works best, and how best to help the community adopt better pain management.
Hayley Turnbull is a pediatrician who is passionate about quality of life for her patients and families. With a special interest in pediatric palliative care, Dr. Turnbull brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Western hub, and we are excited to see her contribute to our mission of improving pain management for children across Canada.
Elise Kammerer is an experienced researcher and knowledge mobilization professional who has led educational and improvement initiatives in both Canada and Germany. Drawing on her background in health promotion and engagement of underrepresented groups, Elise is passionate about understanding and overcoming barriers to children’s pain management through the co-development of initiatives with patients, families, and healthcare professionals. She is particularly interested in helping to empower families to advocate for better pain care on behalf of their children.
With over a decade of frontline experience as a pediatric nurse on various inpatient units, the conversation of pain and mitigating it has been a career-long aspiration for Angela. In Sept 2023, she joined the Edmonton CKI team as a Clinical Nurse Educator and is absolutely loving every minute of it. In her spare time, she is an avid hockey player, choir director, musician, and proudly coaches four nieces and nephews on their respective hockey teams.
SKIP Strategic Initiatives Hub
The Strategic Initiatives Hub is housed at the University of Calgary and Alberta Children’s Hospital. This hub provides leadership on major initiatives including opioids and our youth and vaccination pain and fear management.
Katie Birnie is a Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at the University of Calgary where she leads Partnering For Pain, a patient- and family-partnered research program. Dr. Birnie’s work involves new knowledge generation, synthesis, and mobilization. She is a champion for patient engagement, and supports children and their families through her work at Alberta Children’s Hospital.
Raad Fadaak joins the SKIP team with a history of focusing on high-impact qualitative health research, global health, pandemic preparedness, and healthcare policy. Before SKIP, Raad was a researcher on Canadian federally-funded rapid response grant for COVID-19, analyzing the pandemic response in Alberta, Canada. Raad brings his experience leading and supporting diverse teams, both academic and professional, bringing together emerging leaders, communities of practice, and young talent. He is committed to interdisciplinary and multisectoral work, with a strong foundation at the intersections of research, knowledge mobilization, quality improvement, policymaking, and partnerships. He is excited to join SKIP to further his strong drive for collaboration, impact, curiosity, and exploring new horizons.
SKIP Affiliates
A SKIP Affiliate is a children’s healthcare institution that has demonstrated organizational support for children’s pain management, and where an Affiliate Lead and Knowledge Broker are working to further implement evidence-based solutions within their own institution.
BC Children’s Hospital
BC Children’s Hospital provides expert care for the most seriously ill or injured children from across BC and is the province’s foremost teaching and research facility for child health. SKIP activities at BC Children’s Hospital are led by Dr. Tim Oberlander, a physician-scientist whose work bridges developmental neurosciences and community child health
Alberta Children’s Hospital
A national leader in pain management for children, Alberta Children’s Hospital recently received ChildKind International certification; they are only the second Canadian institution to receive this designation of excellence in assessment and management of pain in children. Alberta Children’s Hospital is also home to our Assistant Scientific Director, Dr. Katie Birnie, who will continues to lead SKIP activities there and across Canada.
Children’s Hospital of Winnipeg
The Children’s Hospital of Winnipeg is located near downtown Winnipeg on the campus of the Health Sciences Centre, but also provides programs, clinical outreach, support and services in every pediatric unit in Manitoba. SKIP activities at the Children’s Hospital are led by Dr. Kerstin Gerhold, who also leads Every Child, Every Time, a local pain program that has made great strides to improve prevention and treatment of pediatric pain in Manitoba.
