Why GAPPA Matters: The Importance of Lived Experience in Pain Research

Joletta is a fierce advocate for the integration of lived experience into the research, study, and treatment of pain. She came to this work through her own experiences of living with chronic pain and struggling to find adequate care, resources, and support after an on-the-job injury as a firefighter. She began writing a blog to try and make sense of things, which led to invitations to speak at conferences and to partner in pain research, education, and publishing. 

She was invited to a meeting at the 2018 World Congress on Pain to discuss how IASP could meaningfully integrate lived experience into its work. In 2019, the Presidential Task Force that became the Global Alliance of Partners for Pain Advocacy (GAPPA) was formed, and Joletta became the founding Co-Chair with Blair. She currently serves as GAPPA Past Co-chair. 

Blair H. Smith MD, FRSE, Professor of Population Health Science at the University of Dundee (Scotland), recently also retired as Consultant in Pain Medicine. Graduating at the Universities of Glasgow (MBChB, 1987) and Aberdeen (MEd Distinction 1998; MD 2000), he held an NHS Primary Care Career Scientist Award (2000 to 2005) and was Professor of Primary Care Medicine at the University of Aberdeen until 2011 before taking up his current post.

His research on chronic pain and neuropathic pain has been published widely, specifically studying its epidemiology, genetics, primary care management and self-management. He has published >320 peer-reviewed research papers, various book chapters and reports, and two volumes of poetry. He has been listed in the Web of Science as a “highly cited researcher” (top 0.1% globally) from 2020 to 2024 (Scopus h-Index 88), and has been (co-)investigator on research grants totalling >£28.3M. In 2025 he was given biennial the Lady Margaret MacLellan Award for outstanding contribution to medical research in Scotland. He was a founding Co-Chair of GAPPA, with Joletta and continues to serve as Past Co-Chair.

Dawn Marie Gibson is a former youth and young adult lay chaplain turned artist, organizer, and citizen lepidopterist. Before joining the National Pain Advocacy Center's leadership she led the Spoonie Chat Twitter community, supporting her fellow spondyloarthritis and fibromyalgia folks and other chronic pain patients through health social media, media availability, and policy advocacy centering the lived experience of patients and the people who love them.

She has extensive family caregiving experience in medical and surgical oncology, dementia, and end-of-life care. She lives in Michigan with her family and a cadre of hand-raised butterflies.