Our Team

Tonya M Palermo, PhD

Dr. Tonya Palermo is Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at University of Washington with adjunct appointments in Pediatrics and Psychiatry. She holds the Hughes M. and Katherine Blake Endowed Professorship in Health Psychology. Dr. Palermo serves as Associate Director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Dr. Palermo completed her undergraduate training at UCLA in Psychology and her PhD at Case Western Reserve University in Clinical Psychology. She completed residency training at Ohio State University followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric pain management at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Palermo has been in Seattle since 2010 where she directs the Pediatric Pain & Sleep Innovations Lab. The focus of her research is on behavioral, psychosocial and family factors that affect pain experiences, the interrelationship of sleep and pain, and innovative psychological treatments for managing and preventing chronic pain. Currently, Dr. Palermo serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pain. Dr. Palermo has developed and evaluated several internet and mobile applications to deliver cognitive-behavioral interventions for chronic pain, has published over 290 articles, and has published two books on cognitive-behavioral therapy. She is active in training clinician-scientists at the postdoctoral and faculty level and directs the T32 postdoctoral training program in anesthesiology research at the University of Washington.

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Caitlin Beth Murray, PhD

Dr. Caitlin Murray is an assistant professor and a pediatric psychologist in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She provides clinical services in the pain management clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital.  She received her PhD in clinical psychology from Loyola University Chicago and completed her predoctoral internship training in pediatric psychology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (Columbus, Ohio). Her research focuses on elucidating unique health and developmental issues facing adolescents and young adults with chronic painful conditions, with the long-term goal of creating tailored cognitive-behavioral therapy interventions that target outcomes of highest importance and interest to this population.

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Neels Groenewald, MD

Dr. Cornelius (Neels) Groenewald is an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and an attending pediatric anesthesiologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He received his medical degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 2002. He completed his anesthesiology residency at Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, and his pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Groenewald conducts public health research that crosses various settings (e.g., large public and private datasets; longitudinal cohort studies) and populations (e.g., critical illness, surgery). Current research projects include the epidemiology of pediatric opioid use; the risks associated with postoperative opioid use; and sleep disturbances related to pain & opioid use.

Groenewald is the recipient of a Society for Pediatric Anesthesiology young investigator award and an International Association for the Study of Pain early career research grant. He leads an NIH-funded study examining sleep and pain outcomes following pediatric critical illness. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Pain.

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Emily F Law, PhD

Dr. Emily F. Law is an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a pediatric psychologist in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She provides clinical services in the multidisciplinary headache clinic and pain management clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She received a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2010 and completed her pre-doctoral internship in pediatric/child clinical psychology at UCLA Medical Center. Law completed her post-doctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. Tonya Palermo at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Her research focuses on evaluating family psychosocial risk in youth with chronic headache and developing and testing behavioral interventions for youth with headache who have comorbid conditions such as poor sleep.

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Jennifer A Rabbitts, MD

Dr. Jennifer Rabbitts is an associate professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She practices as a pediatric anesthesiologist and pain physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Her NIH-funded research program focuses on assessing and improving pain and health outcomes after pediatric surgery. She is specifically interested in bio-psychosocial risk and resilience factors for delayed recovery, mechanisms underlying acute to chronic pain transition and treatments to enhance recovery and improve long-term pain and health outcomes in adolescents undergoing major surgery. 

Rabbitts is active in service, currently serving as Program Chair for the International Symposium of Pediatric Pain 2023, on the editorial boards of the Journal of Pain, Pain Medicine and Pediatric Anesthesia, and as chair for the ChildKind International Pediatric Pain Resource Committee. She is passionate about mentoring students and early career faculty, serving as a mentor for the Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Initiative, and the Mission Driven Mentoring Program for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia, as well as the University of Washington Innovations in Pain Research Summer Program.

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See Wan Tham, MD

Dr. See Wan Tham is an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She is a pediatric anesthesiologist and pain physician and provides clinical services as an anesthesiologist and in the multidisciplinary pain management clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She received her MB BS at the University of Sydney, Australia in 2001 followed by anesthesiology residency at the State University of New York (Syracuse). She then completed pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Her research focus is on identifying the mechanisms underlying the relationship between pain and sleep in pediatric populations with chronic pain conditions. Her research is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to understand the longitudinal trajectories of sleep disturbances and autonomic function in children and adolescents with chronic abdominal pain.

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Rui Li, MBBS, PhD

Dr. Rui Li is a postdoctoral fellow at Seattle Children's Research Institute under the primary mentorship of Dr. Tonya Palermo. She received her bachelor's degree in preventive medicine in China and her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Dr. Li is dedicated to investigating pain in women and youth. Her research centers around three areas: (1) evaluating acute and chronic pain, (2) characterizing pain burdens, and (3) unraveling the causes and origins of various centralized pain disorders. She aims, through her research, to lower the public health burden of chronic pain in women and youth through preventing its occurrence and alleviating its impact.