2026 Australian Pain Society 46th Annual Scientific Meetingin the IASP Global Year about Neuropathic Pain19 - 22 April 2026 | Adelaide Convention Centre, SA

Adelaide University

SA Australia

Carolyn is a clinical neuroscientist with a particular interest in chronic pain in youth.  She is a senior pain physiotherapist in the Chronic Pain Service at the Women's and Children's Hospital (Adelaide) and a senior research fellow at Adelaide University. For the next five years Carolyn is leading (CIA) a MRFF project to co-design community based multidisciplinary care and service delivery for youth with chronic pain.

University of Toronto

Ontario Canada

Mariana Bueno, RN, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Her program of research is centred on pain in neonates and infants, focused on (a) generating and synthesizing research evidence, and (b) developing and evaluating dissemination and implementation strategies to improve health outcomes of neonates, infants and their families.

Dr. Bueno is an appointed Pain Scientist and a member of the Executive Committee of the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain (UTCSP), and co-chair of the Pain in Child Health (PICH) Global Research Training Initiative.

Women's and Children's Hospital

SA Australia

Dr Allan Cyna is a Senior staff specialist Anaesthetist at the Women?s and Children?s Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia and Course Director of Advanced training in clinical hypnosis for the South Australian Society of Hypnosis (SASH).? His PhD in Medicine was on the effects of hypnosis on pain. He has both a clinical and research interest on the effects of hypnosis and communication with children ? particularly in managing needle phobia and pain in paediatric burns and teaching children self-hypnosis for acute procedural and chronic pain.? Dr Cyna has published widely including as Editor in chief of the 'Handbook of Communication in Anaesthesia, Pain Management and Intensive care' published by Oxford University Press in 2024.

Hospital for Sick Children

Ontario Canada

Nicole MacKenzie is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Stinson, and a Psychologist in Supervised Practice in the SickKids Chronic Pain Clinic. She holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Dalhousie University. Her research focuses on implementation science and practice within pediatric pain, with particular interests in shared decision making and interest-holder engagement in knowledge mobilization activities. Nicole takes a patient-centred lens to all of her research and her work aims to improve how people with lived experience are included in processes to put knowledge into action.

SA Health

SA Australia

A Nurse Consultant working in paediatric nursing for the last 20 years at the Women's and Children's Hospital. I began my career in paediatric surgical nursing and have moved through various roles, primarily with in clinical and education, with a strong focus on working collaboratively with teams to drive change. More recently I have transitioned into a dedicated Practice Development (PD) role at the WCHN. I am deeply committed to the principles of person-centred care, recognising the significant role it plays in fostering cultural change and ensuring sustainable improvements in healthcare practice.

Women's and Children's Hospital

SA Australia

Dr Nick Mills is a Staff Specialist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide. He is a consultant for the hospital’s statewide Chronic Pain Service and thoroughly enjoys working within an interdisciplinary team and advocating for a biopsychosocial approach to care in all clinical interactions. He is completing his PhD which will describe a nuanced and tailored approach to person-centred communication in the paediatric healthcare setting. Becoming trained in Clinical Hypnotherapy has enhanced the therapeutic nature of care and a focus on evoking the capacities of young people with complex illness. He also works in the WCH Paediatric Palliative Care service and has been working on the design of a Communication Skills Training program for all staff across the network.

The University of Toronto & The Hospital for Sick Children

Ontario Canada

Kelly Nguyen is a PhD student at the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children. Her PhD work aims to examine how sleep and pain interact in teens with different paediatric rheumatic conditions, including juvenile idiopathic arthritis and lupus.

The Hospital for Sick Children

Ontario Canada

Cynthia Nguyen, MPH, CCRP is a Program Manager at the Hospital for Sick Children with over 15 years of clinical research experience and a strong interest in Pediatric Pain. She currently oversees the SickKids Pain Centre, co-directed by Dr. Jennifer Stinson and Dr. Fiona Campbell, which is a leading international paediatric pain centre specializing in pain prevention, education, and treatment support. The Pain In Child Health (PICH) global training program, under the SickKids Pain Centre, is a tight-knit community of scientists and trainees dedicated to learning and informing changes in practice to minimize pain and suffering of children around the globe.

Women's and Children's Hospital

SA Australia

Chris is a Senior Pharmacist working at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH) in Adelaide, South Australia. Having a long-standing interest in Pain Management, she works with the WCH Comfy Kids Team (Acute Pain Service) as their Clinical Pharmacist.

Chris has enjoyed working with the Australian Pain Society Pain in Childhood Special Interest Group (PinC SIG) Executive Committee.  It has been a pleasure working with this multidisciplinary Team, contributing to the function and direction of the group. 

She is also a Member of the Apha (previously known as the Australian Society of Hospital Pharmacists) and served on their Pain Management Specialty Practice Stream Leadership Group.

Chris is passionate about good management of pain, particularly for children. She works with the team to facilitate a good experience of their hospital admission, reducing fear of future interventions.

Griffith University

QLD Australia

Dr Karin Plummer is a pediatric nurse and clinician researcher dedicated to minimising harm for hospitalised children by reducing unnecessary pain and distress. As a Lecturer in Nursing at Griffith University and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Children’s Hospital Queensland Department of Anaesthesia and Pain, she combines clinical expertise with innovative research in pediatric pain management.

Karin’s work advocates for kinder and less toxic pain treatment options for children, integrating medical and psychological interventions to optimise care. Her research is informed by a neuroscience-driven approach, recognising that untreated pain can lead to lasting changes in a child’s nervous system and avoidable pain conditions.

As a translator of research into practical solutions, Karin is at the forefront of developing personalised pain management strategies for children with cancer. With support from the Kids Cancer Project Early Career Research Fellowship, she is leading the design of a digital tool to assist parents in making confident and timely decisions about pain management during their child’s treatment in collaboration with their healthcare providers.

Karin serves as Chair of the Australian Pain Society’s Pain in Childhood Special Interest Group and the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Oncology Nurses Research Group. She is committed to incorporating consumer voices in paediatric pain research and policy to enhance health outcomes for children, families and their healthcare providers.

Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation

VIC Australia

Dr Nicky Pope is an experienced researcher, accredited Implementation Support Practitioner, and Implementation Support Lead at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI). With a background in paediatric nursing, she brings a strong grounding in clinical practice, research, and systems thinking to her work.

At MCHRI, Nicky leads and supports initiatives that translate evidence into action to improve health outcomes, equity, and system performance. She works across co-design, capacity building, and the application of implementation science frameworks, supporting organisations to embed sustainable change through training, coaching, and strategic support.

Her expertise spans child and family health, paediatric pain and chronic conditions, caregiver engagement, and digital health innovation. She has led and co-led national and international research projects, contributed to policy and program development, and lectures in implementation science, supporting training programs across the Centre.

As Chair of the Pain in Child Health (PICH) Australia network, Nicky is passionate about bridging the gap between research, policy, and practice, ensuring that evidence doesn’t just sit in journals, but transforms systems and lives.

University of Toronto
Canada

Jennifer Stinson is the Mary Jo Haddad Nursing Chair in Child Health and a Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences (CHES) research program, within the Research Institute at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto. She is also a Nurse Practitioner in the Chronic Pain Program in the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at SickKids, a Professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Department of Pediatric Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and a Fellow with the Canadian Academy of Nursing. She leads the iOUCH lab which seeks to improve health outcomes in children and youth with painful chronic conditions using digital health therapeutics.

Dr. Jennifer Stinson recently received the 2025 Peter Gilgan Canada Gairdner Momentum Award for her international leadership in using technology, such as apps and robots, to improve the quality of life for children with chronic pain, for her pioneering work in digital therapeutics and training initiatives for pediatric pain assessment and self-management, particularly for conditions like juvenile idiopathic arthritis, sickle cell disease, chronic pain, and cancer.