Karen Benzies, MN, PhD

Dr. Benzies completed her PhD at the University of Alberta in 2001. She is an Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, and holds a Canadian Health Services Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Karen conducts longitudinal and intervention research in the area of early childhood development. Current research projects include a longitudinal study of preschool children and families living with the consequences of extreme poverty. In a recent presentation, Karen described the value of developing cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary research partnerships to ensure research relevance and effective knowledge translation. Dr. Benzies' past research examines early family environment during infancy and the relationship to the development of behaviour problems in preschool and early school age children. Karen has methodological expertise with longitudinal analyses of large national surveys. She teaches research methods and child health courses. Past clinical experience is in the area of maternal-infant/child and community health.