About Us

About Katie

Kathryn (Katie) Birnie, PhD RPsych

Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary

Full Member, Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary

Full Member, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary

Full Member, Owerko Centre, University of Calgary

Associate Scientific Director, Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP)

Psychologist, Alberta Children’s Hospital

Dr. Kathryn (Katie) Birnie is a Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, and the Department of Community Health Sciences, at the University of Calgary where she leads the Partnering For Pain program. She is the Associate Scientific Director of Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP), a national knowledge mobilization network working to improve evidence-based children’s pain management through coordination and collaboration.

Dr. Birnie completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Dalhousie University in 2016, including a predoctoral residency in Pediatric Health Psychology at the IWK Health Centre. She completed a CIHR-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Birnie also spent time as a clinical research postdoctoral fellow and clinical psychologist at the University Health Network, including with the Transitional Pain Service at Toronto General Hospital and the Interventional Pain Program at Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Birnie joined Alberta Children’s Hospital as a medical psychologist in 2018, where she continues to provide clinical care through the Vi Riddell Children’s Pain and Rehabilitation Program.

Dr. Birnie is a recognized leader in pain research and patient partnership, for which she has received a number of national and international accolades. She was the recipient of the 2022 Early Career Award and the 2020 Pain Awareness Award from the Canadian Pain Society. She was also selected as a 2020-2021 MAYDAY Fellow, a prestigious fellowship focused on communications and advocacy for improved pain care. Previous highlighted awards include the Dr. John T. Goodman Award for Trainee Research in Pediatric Pain, the Brain Star Award from the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, and a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Dr. Birnie has more than 80 peer reviewed publications. Her research integrates patient and family partnership and multi-stakeholder engagement to improve the prevention, assessment, and management of pain experienced by children and their families. Dr. Birnie’s work spans the knowledge-to-action continuum including creating new knowledge, synthesizing existing evidence, and mobilizing knowledge to inform health practice and policy. Her work has contributed to recommendations by the World Health Organization for reducing vaccination pain, and international practice standards for pain assessment and management in children diagnosed with cancer. She is chair of the national working group developing a standard in pediatric pain management with the Health Standards Organization. Dr. Birnie’s research has been featured in media outlets including CBC News, CTV News, Radio Canada International and The Globe and Mail. She holds research funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Pain Society, the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit, and the Chronic Pain Network. Dr. Birnie is a strong advocate for the partnership of patients and families in health research, health care delivery, and health systems design.

Jaimie Beveridge, BA (Hons), MSc

PhD Student in Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary

Jaimie is interested in the connections between adversity, chronic pain, and mental health in parents and their children. Her Master’s research examined adverse childhood experiences among parents of youth with chronic pain including their prevalence and association with the physical and mental health of parents and children. Her doctoral research will continue to examine the role of parent chronic pain and mental health in pediatric chronic pain, with the aim of identifying factors that can be targeted in interventions to improve the outcomes of families living with chronic pain. Outside of the lab, Jaimie enjoys biking, cooking, and watching the Blue Jays. Jaimie is co-supervised by Dr. Melanie Noel

Mica Marbil, BA (Honours)

MSc Student in Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary

Mica is a first-year Master of Science student under the supervision of Dr. Katie Birnie in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Calgary. She completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, First Class, at the University of Calgary, where she examined posttraumatic headache in children with mild traumatic brain injury. Her current research interests include cross-cultural research, behavioural health equity, and assessment and treatment for pain in marginalized groups. When not doing research or coursework, Mica enjoys singing in choirs, learning other languages, and listening to musical theatre.

Samantha Noyek, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Calgary

Sam is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Psychology Department. Her PhD work involved exploring the emotional well-being of children and youth with complex health care and communication needs. She is passionate about creative qualitative research methods and better understanding the lived experiences of groups who are often overlooked in research. Her current projects span topics related to pain assessment of youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities, youth telling their major surgery stories through photo-based methods, and intergenerational chronic pain of Canadian Veterans and their Children. Sam is originally from Thornhill, Ontario; She loves to play Bananagrams and go on camping trips!

Brittany Rosenbloom, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children

Brittany completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at York University under the supervision of Dr. Joel Katz. Her main area of research is on the transition from acute to chronic pain in youth. She has projects spanning from the assessment of pain to evidence-based treatments for pain. She is also a clinical psychologist in supervised practice in Ontario. On her spare time, she enjoys being outdoors and spending time with family and friends.  Brittany is co-supervised by Dr. Jennifer Stinson at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Sabine Soltani, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Calgary

Sabine completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary in 2020, including a pre-doctoral residency with the Calgary Clinical Psychology Residency program. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary working with Dr. Katie Birnie in the Partnering for Pain Lab as well as Dr. Melanie Noel in the Pain Education, Advocacy, Knowledge (PEAK) Lab, both located at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Sabine’s research has broadly focused on cognitive-affective and dispositional factors implicated in chronic pain and co-occurring mental health symptoms. Her current research interests include a continued focus on the co-occurrence of pediatric chronic pain and mental health symptoms as well as knowledge translation and knowledge mobilization aimed at improving the health and well-being of youth and families impacted by pain.

Raad Fadaak, PhD

Knowledge Broker

Raad joined Katie and the Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP) team in September 2022 as a ‘Knowledge Broker’ to help drive forward a national-level project looking at opioid use and prescribing in youth with acute and chronic pain. Raad has a PhD in medical anthropology from McGill University, and has previously worked on ethnographic projects related to traumatic brain injury, global health security and pandemic preparedness, and responded to the COVID-19 pandemic here in Alberta with the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. Raad is a qualitative researcher at heart, but his interests are pretty much unlimited to anything others are really curious about, including all the work going on at the Partnering For Pain Lab! Raad loves to be active, play games, is a voracious consumer of media, and a techie.

Violeta Faulkner, BSc

Clinical Research Coordinator

Violeta obtained her BSc in Psychology with a minor in Anthropology at the University of Lethbridge. Her research focused on social anxiety, communication apprehension, emotions and popular culture. Her current research interests include neurodevelopmental disorders and its influence on families, Social Anxiety and community engagement. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family, practicing yoga and painting.

Jenna Jessa, BSc

Research Assistant

Jenna completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of British Columbia in 2021. During her undergraduate degree, she had the opportunity to study pediatric populations in a variety of clinical settings at British Columbia Children’s Hospital and found that pain was prominent in across childhood disease. She is currently a Master of Science student in the Medical Science program at the University of Calgary, with a research focus in prenatal stress and maternal pain in relation to child brain development. As a Research Assistant, she assists with a variety of quantitative and qualitative studies within the lab. In her free time, Jenna loves to explore new restaurants around the city!

Megan MacNeil, MPH

Knowledge Broker

Megan MacNeil is a Knowledge Broker with Solution for Kids in Pain (SKIP), a national knowledge mobilization network. She supports the knowledge mobilization activities of the Immunizing Children with Confidence project. Megan is also a PhD student in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta and is studying school and community-based approaches to sleep education. Megan has over 15 years of experience leading programs focusing on community health and digital technology. Megan is passionate about children’s health and helping families, and caregivers access quality, evidence-based care where and when they need it.

Mentorship & Training

Dr. Birnie provides opportunities for mentorship and supervision for emerging health research trainees from various disciplines within the Partnering For Pain program. Contact her to explore training opportunities at the undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate level within the University of Calgary.

Dr. Birnie is actively seeking Master's or PhD students for the 2022-2023 academic year. She supervises in these graduate programs at the University of Calgary.

Partnering for Pain

About Katie

Our Trainees

Rayna Anderson

BSc (Honours) Student in Psychology, University of Calgary

Jaimie Beveridge, BA (Hons), MSc

PhD Student in Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary

Nicole MacKenzie, BA MEd

PhD Student in Clinical Psychology at Dalhousie University

Mica Marbil, BA (Honours)

MSc Student in Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary

Samantha Noyek, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Calgary

Brittany Rosenbloom, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children

Sabine Soltani, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Calgary