Alli Smith, PhD, has made significant and innovative contributions to research in the field of pediatric pain psychology. Beginning in her post-doctoral fellowship and early career, this was achieved through the development of empirically informed tools and interventions for patients and their caregivers. Building on her doctoral work creating a caregiver-only intervention for childhood anxiety, she then co-developed an intervention for youth with elevated pain-related fear and authored its caregiver component. Her early work also informed subsequent collaborations on studies examining the influence of caregiver attitudes and behaviors on youth pain outcomes, as well as studies on risk and resilience factors in youth themselves. To address the need for better predictors of treatment success, Dr. Smith co-developed and validated several measures, including assessments of caregiver pain-related fear, caregiver pain-related acceptance, pediatric pain-related or headache-related risk (brief screening tools for triaging care), and youth avoidance of light/sound associated with chronic headache. These tools have advanced clinical decision-making in the chronic pain and headache populations.
More recently, Dr. Smith’s clinical and research efforts have centered on treatment readiness. She developed PREPaRe, a telehealth motivational interviewing intervention to improve engagement in intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment, which recently underwent a randomized controlled trial. She has presented nationally and internationally on readiness for change and is pursuing new methods to improve its measurement in pediatric pain treatment. Dr. Smith is also deeply invested in health equity, including efforts to ensure gender-affirming, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive care. She is currently leading a mixed-methods study on the intersections of gender diversity and pain in collaboration with lived experience partners. She also co-founded the Division’s first Patient-Family Advisory Council to embed patient perspectives into clinical care and research design.
Dr. Smith's early academic and clinical experiences and academic path led her to pediatric psychology organically. She began her formal education in psychology at the University of Scranton, where psychology's blend of science and practice appealed to her intellectual curiosity and desire to facilitate health and well-being in the lives of young people. She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Rhode Island, with a focus in child, family, and development psychology. During her graduate education, she pursued clinical training experiences in childhood anxiety and in pediatric health psychology at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, RI, followed by her pre-doctoral residency in Pediatric Psychology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship training at Boston Children's Hospital. These experiences, in addition to her previous position at the Mayo Family Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Center (PPRC), have prepared her well for her current role in the Pediatric Headache Program.