Martha Kenney

Martha Kenney, MD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine. She is an interdisciplinary pain researcher with expertise in pain management and physiology and pain processing in children and adolescents. Her research focuses on identifying modifiable risk factors for adverse pain outcomes in adolescents and young adults with complex painful conditions, especially sickle cell disease (SCD), and increasing community research engagement amongst underrepresented communities. Dr.  Kenney has a strong track record in SCD pain research. She is supported by a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Career Development Award (K01-HL169339-01) and a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)engagement award. Her pain expertise has been recognized nationally. She contributed to the PhenX Sickle Cell Pain Working Group, establishing consensus on pain-specific patient-reported outcomes, and served on the U.S. Association for the Study of Pain’s (USASP) Patient Advisory Taskforce. She holds several leadership positions with national organizations, including as an expert member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine’s (NASEM) Committee on Sickle Cell Disease in Social Security Disability Evaluations, a working group member of the Sickle Cell Disease Pain Analgesia and Integrative Network (SCDPAIN), a member of the National Pain Advocacy Center Scientific Advisory Council, a guest editor for The Journal of Pain, and the co-chair for the Diversity, Equity and Anti-racism Small Group of the USASP. Previously, she had an investigator-initiated grant by Global Blood Therapeutics which examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pain management and care of sickle cell patients and on the operation of comprehensive sickle cell centers.

Dr. Kenney is a dually trained in general pediatrics and anesthesiology. She completed medical school, residency and fellowship trainings at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Brown University. Outside of her research, she is also certified professional coach with a focus on time management and work-life balance for women in academia.