Nursing/Sociology, Professor, Faculty of Nursing,University of Alberta, Canada

Dr. Nicole Letourneau received her Ph.D. in Nursing from the University of Alberta in 1998. She is tenured full Professor at the University of Calgary in the Faculties of Nursing and Medicine (Pediatrics). Currently, she holds the Norlien/ACHF Chair in Parent-Infant Mental Health and previously, she was the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Healthy Child Development. She is PI of the CHILD (Child Health Intervention and Longitudinal Development) Studies Program studying parenting, attachment and child development in the context of family violence, maternal depression, and substance abuse. Her most recent study examines the mediating influence of maternal attachment behaviours on the relationship between maternal mental distress during pregnancy and infant Hypothalmic Pituitary Adrenal axis responses. All of her research is community-based and seeks to develop evidence to guide best practice in parent-child support and intervention. She has received many honours for her scholarly work including being named Canada’s Premier Young Researcher by CIHR (2006), to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 (2007), and to Who’s Who in Canada (2008-). She has published (or in press) over 79 peer-reviewed papers, 14 chapters and book contributions and presented her research over 150 times. As Principal or Co-Principal Investigator she has earned over 5 million dollars from national and regional funders. As Co-Investigator, she has earned over 10 million more research dollars for her projects.

collaboration, disparities, interdisciplinary, participatory, research programme, social support.