ProfessorClaire Ashton-James

Professor Ashton-James, PhD, is a social psychologist and pain scientist who partners with patients, clinicians, and healthcare organisations to improve the efficacy and accessibility of treatments for chronic and acute pain. Prof Ashton-James' is also an educator, teaching on social aspects of pain and healthcare delivery within undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney. In addition, Prof Ashton-James develops and facilitates interactive workshops for practicing clinicians to enable them to identify and address patient emotion and distress in clinical encounters, thereby improving patient engagement and reducing clinician risk of burnout. With a keen interest in optimising education delivery improved university governance and policy, Prof Ashton-James has several leadership roles, including Research Education Academic Director for the Northern Precinct of the Faculty of Medicine and Health.

Prof Ashton-James has had an international career. She conducted her PhD research at UNSW (Australia) and Duke University (USA). She was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia (Canada) before moving to The Netherlands to work as an Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen, and later, the Free University of Amsterdam (Department of Psychology and the VU Medical Center Amsterdam). Ashton-James maintains international collaborations and is currently working closely with colleagues in the USA, Canada, The Netherlands, the UK, and New Zealand.

Prof Ashton-James is a Co-I on over 13 million dollars of competitive research funding, and is grateful to have had her research supported by philanthropic donors including the Ernst Family Foundation, The G&P Nock Foundation, Pain Foundation Limited, and the Woodend Foundation.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss collaboration on research, educational, or governance matters.