Dr Anna Hood is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Psychology in the Division of Psychology and Mental Health and the Programme Director for the Excellence in Diversity PhD Scholarships at the University of Manchester. She is a clinical health psychologist and completed her graduate and postdoctoral training in the US and the UK at Washington University in St. Louis, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. She has received pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships from the National Institutes of Health. She is currently funded as a PI and Co-I on grants from the UK National Institutes of Health Research, the UK Medical Research Foundation, and the Society for Pediatric Psychology (SPP).
Dr Hood’s research examines the biopsychosocial challenges faced by pediatric patients living with pain, with a particular focus on children and young adults living with sickle cell. She has published extensively and collaborates on projects to understand pain from structural perspectives, develop mechanisms for restoration, and create pathways for justice to eliminate pain inequities. Dr Hood was awarded the 2024 International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) Ulf Lindblom Young Investigator Prize for Clinical Science for her work with youth living with sickle cell.
Dr Hood serves on the IASP Presidential Task Force for Sustainability and the SPP Presidential Task Force for Advocacy. She also provides expertise on a Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research project (i.e., Enhancing Trust in Pain Evidence [ENTRUST-PE]), the UK Research and Innovation Medical Research Council Black in Biomedical Research Advisory Group, the American Society of Hematology Roadmap to Improve DEI in Hematology Clinical Trials, and the National Institutes for Health Research James Lind Alliance Sickle Cell Genomics Priority Setting Partnership.
She is presenting her seminar entitled "Mechanisms of Injustice - Achieving Equity in Pain Research and Clinical Care"