Christine Miaskowski

Christine Miaskowski RN, PhD, FAAN is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Physiological Nursing and Sharon A. Lamb Endowed Chair in Symptom Management Research in the School of Nursing at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF). In the School of Medicine, she holds an appointment in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care. Dr. Miaskowski serves as the Co-Director of the Pain and Addition Research Center at UCSF. In addition, she the first nurse to be awarded an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship.

Dr. Miaskowski received her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Molloy College in New York. She has a Master’s degree in Nursing from Adelphi University and a Master’s degree in Biology and a PhD in Physiology from St. John’s University in New York. After completing her doctoral degree, Dr. Miaskowski traveled to the West Coast where she completed a postdoctoral fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Nurse Scholar.

Dr. Miaskowski is active in numerous professional organizations and has served on the Board of Directors of the Oncology Nursing Society, the American Pain Society, and the International Association for the Study of Pain. She was the first nurse elected President of the American Pain Society.

Dr. Miaskowski has received numerous honors and awards including the Distinguished Researcher Award from the Oncology Nursing Society, the Distinguished Merit Award from the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care, the Wilbert Fordyce Clinical Investigator Award from the American Pain Society, and the Ada Sue Hinshaw Distinguished Research Award. In addition, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Oncology Nursing Society and the American Pain Society. Dr. Miaskowski is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a member of Sigma Theta Tau’s International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. Most recently, she was honored by the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Prevention as one of seven scientists (the only nurse) as a champion and change maker of cancer pain control and symptom science.

Dr. Miaskowski is an internationally recognized expert in pain and symptom management research. She is a prolific writer who has authored over 600 peer-reviewed papers and four books. Her program of research focuses on determining which phenotypic and genotypic characteristics predict patients with the most severe symptoms; evaluating the deleterious effects of unrelieved symptoms on patient outcomes; and developing and testing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions to decrease symptoms in patients with cancer.