What is pain? What affects our perception of pain? Join us on June 7th with our speakers Dr. Kenneth Craig, the Director of the BC Pain Research Network and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UBC, and Nicole Bailey, a graduate research assistant at the Kramer lab at ICORD. In this session, we will explore the psychological, social, and biological dimensions of pain, as well as current research studying the interactions of stress and pain.

Speakers

Kenneth Craig

Dr. Kenneth Craig is currently Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Director of the BC Pain Research Network, and has previously served as President of both the Canadian Pain Society and the Canadian Psychological Association. Dr. Craig has greatly contributed to the understanding of pain and has been recognized for his contributions with many awards including appointment to an Officer of the Order of Canada and the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Dr. Craig’s research interests include methods of measuring pain such as facial expression, pain in nonverbal populations such as people with cognitive impairment, and social influences on pain perception and expression. This research seeks to improve clinical management of pain by focusing on psychological and social aspects of pain.  

Nicole Bailey

Nicole Bailey is a Graduate Research Assistant in Dr. John Kramer’s lab at International Collaboration on Repaid Discoveries (ICORD) with a Masters of Science in Experimental Medicine. Nicole works as a Pain Coach at Pain BC and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors at Pain BC.

Nicole’s research focuses on pain and the specific factors influencing its perception, specifically the impact of stress on chronic pain and sociocultural impacts on the Indigenous experience of physical pain in Canada. Her research project, aimed to understand how acute stress influences pain, received various awards including 2021 CIHR CGS-M, 2022 VCHRI Rising Star Award, and 2022 Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health Endowment Award. Nicole’s passion on this topic stems from her own lived experiences of chronic pain in addition to her expertise of chronic pain research and support services.