Dr. Karen Beattie

Member of the CNN Governing board

Karen Beattie is the mother of a micropreemie graduate of the McMaster Neonatal Intensive Care Unit who was born in October, 2013. Since 2016, Karen has volunteered in the McMaster NICU as a Family Advisor, co-chairing the Family Integrated Care committee, serving on quality improvement committees, and providing education and support for current NICU families. She is a member and former chair of the McMaster Children’s Hospital Family Advisory Committee where she is a passionate advocate for children and their families. Karen is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation.

Professionally, Karen is the Lead of Patient and Family Engagement in Research in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University where she trains, mentors and partners researchers and people with lived/living experiences in meaningful engagement work. She has presented on the topic of engaging people with lived experiences locally, nationally and internationally, and seeks to always bring the valuable lived experiences voices to research and education in the most meaningful ways.  She is also a researcher in the Division of Pediatric Rheumatology where the majority of her work focuses on the transition of youth from pediatric to adult care.