National Oversight Panel Membership Roster
Sean C. Mackey, MD, PhD (Co-Chair)
Chief, Division of Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Mackey is Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Neurosciences and (by courtesy) Neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Mackey also serves as Director of the Stanford Systems Neuroscience and Pain Lab. His studies integrate advanced neurobehavioral, psychophysical and neuroimaging techniques to elucidate and characterize the underlying mechanisms of pain and the individual differences in pain perception. Dr. Mackey received his undergraduate and Master's degrees in Engineering from University of Pennsylvania and his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as medical degree from University of Arizona. His recent commendations include the American Pain Society Clinical Center of Excellence Award (2008 and 2012), NIH NCCAM P01 to investigate mechanisms of chronic low back pain and effects of four therapies, and a NIH NIDA K24 Mid-Career Development Award for Neuroimaging and Mentoring in Translational Pain Research. Dr. Mackey sits on multiple editorial boards, and is author of over 200 journal articles, book chapters, abstracts, and popular press pieces in addition to numerous national and international lectures. Dr. Mackey co-chairs the Oversight Panel with Dr. Linda Porter.
Linda Porter, PhD (Co-Chair)
Health Science Policy Advisor for Pain
Dr. Linda Porter joined the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in 2003 as a Program Director in Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience. Dr. Porter received a B.Sc. in Physical Therapy from McGill University. Her clinical practice focused on developmental disabilities. She later earned a Ph.D. in neuroanatomy from Boston University School of Medicine and then trained as a neurophysiologist at the Rockefeller University. She was on the faculty of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences for 15 years, where she directed an NIH funded research program aimed at elucidating mechanisms of sensory-motor integration. As a Program Director at NINDS, Dr. Porter managed the institute’s neuropathic pain research portfolio. She also served as a liaison to the pain research community, and voluntary and professional groups whose interests are related to chronic pain disorders. She served as the NINDS representative to the NIH Pain Consortium, whose mission is to develop a comprehensive trans-NIH pain research agenda, to identify and facilitate opportunities in pain research, and to develop partnerships to promote the nationwide research agenda. In 2012, Dr. Porter became the Health Science Policy Advisor for Pain. In this capacity, her primary responsibilities are to coordinate and facilitate activities and programs of the NIH Pain Consortium and to support the activities of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee. Dr. Porter co-chairs the Oversight Panel with Dr. Sean Mackey.
Daniel Carr, MD
Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
Dr. Carr is a Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and directs its interprofessional program in Pain Research, Education and Policy, the only such program based in a department of public health and community medicine. A clinician and investigator, he has published in pain research, evidence-based medicine, and the social and political aspects of pain relief. He was Founding Editor of IASP’s Pain: Clinical Updates, co-founding editor for pain trials in the Cochrane review group on Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care, and serves on editorial boards of pain-related journals. Key publications include co-editing the first two DHHS clinical practice guidelines on pain; the first monograph on evidence, outcomes and quality of life in pain management; and the latest edition of the authoritative Cousins and Bridenbaugh text on neural blockade and pain medicine. Beyond his work with IASP and the US AHCPR and AHRQ, he has had advisory roles for the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the American Pain Society, the Interstitial Cystitis Association, the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors the Joint Commission, NIH, FDA, and the American Chronic Pain Association. He holds 20 analgesia-related patents. His honors include ASRA’s Bonica Lecture, APS’s Fordyce, Distinguished Service, and Narcessian (Educational Excellence) Awards, AAPM’s Lippe and Founders’ Awards, and two citations from the Secretary of HHS.
Myra Christopher, BA
Chair, Pain and Palliative Care, Center for Practical Bioethics
Ms. Christopher is the Kathleen M. Foley Chair in Pain and Palliative Care at the Center for Practical Bioethics. Prior to December 2011, Ms. Christopher was President and CEO of the Center for Practical Bioethics since its inception in 1984. From 1998-2003, Ms. Christopher served in the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation's National Program Office for Community-State Partnerships to Improve End-of Life Care which was housed at the Center. She is currently the principal investigator on the Pain Action Initiative: A National Strategy (PAINS) and was a Pain Study Committee Member with the Institute of Medicine panel which released its report "Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research" in June 2011. Ms. Christopher is a current or past member of a number of editorial and advisory boards including the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Certification Corporation and the American Journal of Bioethics. She has received many awards for her work in chronic pain including the American Academy of Pain Medicine's Patient Advocacy Award and the American Academy of Pain Management's "Head Heart Award". Ms. Christopher holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from University of Kansas – Missouri City and received an Honorary Doctorate from National University of Health Sciences in Chicago in December 2011.
Ms. Christopher is the Kathleen M. Foley Chair in Pain and Palliative Care at the Center for Practical Bioethics. Prior to December 2011, Ms. Christopher was President and CEO of the Center for Practical Bioethics since its inception in 1984. From 1998-2003, Ms. Christopher served in the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation's National Program Office for Community-State Partnerships to Improve End-of Life Care which was housed at the Center. She is currently the principal investigator on the Pain Action Initiative: A National Strategy (PAINS) and was a Pain Study Committee Member with the Institute of Medicine panel which released its report "Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research" in June 2011. Ms. Christopher is a current or past member of a number of editorial and advisory boards including the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Certification Corporation and the American Journal of Bioethics. She has received many awards for her work in chronic pain including the American Academy of Pain Medicine's Patient Advocacy Award and the American Academy of Pain Management's "Head Heart Award". Ms. Christopher holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from University of Kansas – Missouri City and received an Honorary Doctorate from National University of Health Sciences in Chicago in December 2011.
Terrie Cowley, BA
President and Co-founder, TMJ Association
Terrie Cowley is President and Co-founder of the TMJ Association, Milwaukee, Wis., a nonprofit organization established in 1989 to establish safe and effective means of diagnosis, treatment, and prevent temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJD). Ms. Cowley is also a founding member of the Chronic Pain Research Alliance - an umbrella advocacy organization for overlapping chronic pain disorders. Ms. Cowley has worked as a patient representative with several government agencies, including the Institute of Medicine, the NIH and the FDA on issues related to TMJD. Ms. Cowley studied government and history at Harvard University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Millsaps College.
David W. Dodick, MD
Professor of Neurology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
David W. Dodick, MD, FRCP (C), FACP, is Professor of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and a consultant in neurology at the Mayo Clinic, in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is the Program Director of the Mayo Clinic Neurology Residency Program and Headache Medicine Fellowship Program. He is the Medical Director of the Headache Program as well as the Concussion Program at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Dr. Dodick is board certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). He also holds United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties certification in headache medicine and ABPN certification in vascular neurology. Dr. Dodick has authored more than 280 peer-reviewed publications and coauthored 8 books. He serves as Editor in Chief of Cephalalgia and is on the editorial board of several journals including Lancet Neurology and The Neurologist. He is President-Elect of the International Headache Society, the Immediate Past-President of the American Headache Society, Chair of the American Migraine Foundation, and Vice-Chair of the World Federation of Neurology Headache Research Group.
Carmen R. Green, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology and Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Michigan Health System
Dr. Green is a University of Michigan Professor (with tenure) of Anesthesiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology (School of Medicine), and Health Management and Policy School of Public Health, and a practicing pain medicine physician and anesthesiologist at the University of Michigan Health System. Dr. Green's health services research agenda focuses on access to health and pain care; pain assessment, management, and outcomes; health and pain disparities due to age, race/ethnicity, gender, class, and geography; minority and women's health; clinician decision-making; and health policy. She is Co-Director for the Community Liaison Core and Director of the Healthier Black Elders Center for the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research. Dr. Green earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Michigan-Flint and received a M.D. from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society. She completed several prestigious fellowships with the Association of American Medical Colleges, Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program, Mayday Pain & Society, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation where she was a health policy fellow with the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the Children and Families Subcommittee. She is an active member of several scientific organizations, founding chair for the American Pain Society's Special Interest Group for Pain and Disparities, serves on the editorial board for Pain Medicine and the Journal of Pain, was the guest editor for Pain Medicine's first special issue on disparities in pain care, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine's Health Care Services Board, American Cancer Society' Council on Extramural Grants, Governor's Advisory Committee on Pain and Symptom Management, and National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research. Dr. Green has received several honors including Who's Who in America, America's Top Doctor, John C. Liebeskind Pain Management Research Award, and the Elizabeth Narcessian Award for Outstanding Educational Achievements in Pain. She is an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, Gerontological Society of America, and the Association of University Anesthesiologists.
Charles G. Helmick III, MD
Senior Medical Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Helmick is a senior medical epidemiologist with the Arthritis Program at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His current responsibilities include directing the team’s scientific staff and resources to implement the surveillance, epidemiology, and prevention research strategies laid out in the National Arthritis Action Plan which he helped to write. He is also a Workgroup Coordinator as well as author of the first-ever Healthy People 2010 arthritis objectives. Dr. Helmick has nearly 29 years of experience in public health, working first on infectious disease issues as part of the Epidemic Intelligence Service training program at CDC, then on international public health issues at the Sierra Leone Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, followed by 24 years at CDC working on chronic disease problems, including multiple sclerosis, digestive diseases, and age-related disorders. Dr. Helmick received his undergraduate degree in Zoology from the University of Michigan and medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has authored or co-authored over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has received several awards for scientific work in public health and government service.
Robert D. Kerns, PhD
Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University
Robert Kerns, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with broad clinical and health services research interests focused primarily on assessment and management of chronic pain and mental health and substance use disorder co-morbidities.
Audrey Kusiak, PhD
Portfolio Manager, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Research and Development
Dr. Kusiak is a Portfolio Manager in the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Research and Development, where her portfolio includes research on spinal cord injury, pain, regenerative medicine and translational neural repair. Dr. Kusiak received her PhD in Neuroscience from the College of Medicine at the University of Florida in 1992 and completed postdoctoral work in the Department of Neuromorphology at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry at Martinsried, Germany. She became an Intramural Research Training Award Fellow at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Baltimore, Maryland, and then a Research Scientist at the NIA. Prior to her current position, Dr. Kusiak was the Acting Director of the Defense Spinal Cord and Column Injury Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and a Program Analyst in the Repair and Plasticity Cluster at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Dr. Kusiak is a Portfolio Manager in the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Research and Development, where her portfolio includes research on spinal cord injury, pain, regenerative medicine and translational neural repair. Dr. Kusiak received her PhD in Neuroscience from the College of Medicine at the University of Florida in 1992 and completed postdoctoral work in the Department of Neuromorphology at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry at Martinsried, Germany. She became an Intramural Research Training Award Fellow at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Baltimore, Maryland, and then a Research Scientist at the NIA. Prior to her current position, Dr. Kusiak was the Acting Director of the Defense Spinal Cord and Column Injury Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and a Program Analyst in the Repair and Plasticity Cluster at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Judith Paice, PhD, RN, FAAN
Director, Cancer Pain Program, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Dr. Paice is the Director of the Cancer Pain Program in the Division of Hematology-Oncology and a Research Professor of Medicine, Northwestern University; Feinberg School of Medicine. She is also a full member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Paice has served as President of the American Pain Society and Secretary of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Much of Dr. Paice’s clinical work has been in the relief of pain associated with cancer and HIV disease. She has traveled widely within the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tajikistan, and many other countries to educate health care professionals regarding cancer pain relief and palliative care. Dr. Paice serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Pain, the Clinical Journal of Pain and the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management and is the author of more than 150 scientific manuscripts. She was one of the original consultants in the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) and has continued serving as a faculty member in this program.
Greg Terman, MD, PhD
Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington
Dr. Terman is Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Terman has a PhD in behavioral neuroscience from UCLA and added certification in Pain Management from the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Terman’s research career has focused primarily on mechanisms of pain modulation including endogenous pain inhibitory and facilitatory circuitry and synaptic plasticity of these systems induced by repeated pain or pain medicines (including opioid induced hyperalgesia, tolerance and dependence mechanisms). More recently Dr. Terman’s research has expanded to study how these changes in pain systems compare and contrast to changes in other side effects of pain medicines (e.g., itching and respiratory depression) with repeated administration. These interests have been fueled by the increasing numbers of people dying each day from overdoses of prescription medications intended to relieve pain. Dr. Terman received a MayDay Pain and Society fellowship in 2011 and as a special government employee has worked for the FDA, SAMHSA, and the ONC to make pain treatment safer. He is president-elect of the American Pain Society whose mission is to increase knowledge of pain and reduce pain related suffering.
Major General Richard W. Thomas, MD, DDS, FACS
Commanding General, Western Region Medical Command
MG Thomas serves as the Commanding General, Western Region Medical Command since March 2012. He previously served as Surgeon General, United States Forces-Afghanistan/ISAF Joint Command Medical Advisor. Prior to that assignment, he served as the Assistant Surgeon General (Force Projection), Headquarters Department of the Army, Pentagon, Washington, DC. MG Thomas earned a Bachelor's degree, Doctorate in Dental Surgery and Medical Degree from West Virginia University. He completed an internship at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas and residency training in Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery at Madigan Army Medical Center, Fort Lewis, Washington. He is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery and is a Fellow, American College of Surgeons. MG Thomas has received numerous awards and decorations including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit (with two oak leaf clusters), and Bronze Star Medal (with oak leaf cluster).
Christin L. Veasley, BSc
Co-Founder, Chronic Pain Research Alliance
Christin L. Veasley is co-founder of the Chronic Pain Research Alliance and former executive director of the National Vulvodynia Association. She has served as an advocate for women with vulvodynia and other chronic pain disorders since her teens, and considers it a privilege to serve, and provide a voice for, this longtime neglected population. After surviving a nearly fatal car accident at 15, ensuing chronic pain led Christin into the study of medical sciences. She received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin, and worked in the Department of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine conducting basic and clinical research on the neurophysiological mechanisms of pelvic pain before coming to the National Vulvodynia Association in 2000 and co-founding the Chronic Pain Research Alliance in 2009. For the past two decades, she’s advocated in various capacities to promote, expand and improve scientific research on vulvodynia and other chronic pain disorders that frequently affect women and girls. Additionally, through the development of patient education modules and continuing medical education programs for the medical-scientific community, Christin’s work has focused on translating the findings of high caliber scientific research into improved educational and clinical tools for the patient and medical communities. To facilitate awareness and understanding of chronic pain’s impact on the lives of those afflicted, she speaks openly about her experiences. Christin was honored to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at the Committee’s first chronic pain hearing in 2012, and has been interviewed on the Dr. Oz Show, 20/20 and in Good Housekeeping Magazine.