Pauline Voon is a registered nurse and research associate at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use. She is a former fellow and co-director of the Centre’s nursing fellowship program focused on substance use, and currently a PhD student at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health. She is supported by both a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation scholarship and a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
Her research and nursing practice—spanning hospital, community, and global health settings—have primarily focused on promoting health among vulnerable populations facing complex health challenges such as HIV/AIDS, substance use, and chronic pain. Pauline is the first author of numerous articles published in leading international journals (e.g., PAIN, Journal of Pain, Drug and Alcohol Review). She is also the lead author of the Vancouver Coastal Health/Providence Health Guideline for the Clinical Management of Opioid Addiction and a policy report titled Together We Can Do This: Strategies to Address British Columbia’s Prescription Opioid Crisis.
Her knowledge translation efforts include frequent media citations, with editorials published in The Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, Times Colonist, and Maclean’s magazine. Pauline completed a minor in English during her undergraduate studies and studied technical communication at Simon Fraser University. As a medical writer, she has contributed to securing over $16 million in funding to support research and training in substance use.
Pauline is also passionate about global health and international development. She served as a healthcare administrator for HIV/AIDS programs in Ethiopia with the Ethiopian Nurses Association, and held similar roles with the Canadian Nurses Association and CIDA. She has worked as a peer educator on HIV/AIDS, an English teacher in Guyana and South America, and as a secretary for the West Coast regional chapter of GlobalMedic, a charitable organization providing emergency response services in disaster zones worldwide.
