The Mayday Fund empowers pain specialists to take on public leadership roles aimed at alleviating human suffering from pain. Established in 2004, this competitive fellowship equips leaders in pain management with the necessary tools and skills to advocate for improved pain treatment.
WCH scientists Rachael Bosma, PhD and Dr. Karim Ladha, are two of 12 pain experts selected to join the 2024-2025 Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship: Communicating Science & Improving Care.
The fellows represent a diverse range of expertise from across the United States and Canada, including fields like anesthesiology, nursing, pediatric care and psychology.
The fellowship provides a three-day training workshop in Washington, DC that covers a range of communications and advocacy skills, including developing effective messages, interacting with journalists and policymakers and individualized coaching support from a public interest communications firm.
Rachael Bosma, research lead for WCH’s Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute (TAPMI) and director at the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain, seeks to address pervasive and chronic health system challenges.
“As an academic, my training has been highly specialized, focusing primarily on scientific communication within the academic community. As I progress into more leadership roles, the work I want to champion has a broader impact and requires more diverse, public-facing communication,” says Bosma. “The media training this fellowship provides will help me move that work forward.”
Dr. Karim Ladha, WCH’s Evelyn Bateman Recipe Chair in Ambulatory Anesthesia and Women’s Health aims to make life better for those suffering from refractory chronic pain.
“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to effectively communicate scientific findings in a clear and transparent way. Receiving formal training to improve this skillset is a great opportunity,” says Ladha. “I’m also looking forward to networking with other professionals from across Canada and the US who are all working towards mitigating the impacts of chronic pain.”
The new Fellows will join more than 107 experts from the earlier classes of The Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship.
Congratulations to both! To learn more about the fellowship, click here.