Biographical Statement - Professor Frank Keefe

Francis J. Keefe is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Associate Director for Research in the Duke Pain and Palliative Care Initiative at Duke University Medical Center and Professor of Psychology: Social and Health Sciences at Duke University.

He received his undergraduate degree in psychology at Bowdoin College (B.A., 1971) and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Ohio University (Ph.D., 1975). Following graduate school he completed a Post-Doctoral fellowship in the Psychophysiology Lab at Massachusetts Mental Health Center (Harvard Medical School) where he conducted research on clinical applications of EMG biofeedback.

Frank has broad interests in behavioral and psychological aspects of pain and pain management. He is recognized for his research on pain coping and his controlled treatment outcome studies evaluating the efficacy of coping skills training interventions for persons suffering from persistent disease-related pain.

Frank has played a key role in the development of clinical pain services and pain research programs at Duke Medical Center. For 20 years he directed the Pain Management Program and was a leader in the development of Duke Medical Center's multidisciplinary pain programs (both out-patient and in-patient).

Frank has developed and refined a number of treatment protocols for persistent pain including spouse- and partner-assisted pain coping skills training interventions.

After spending a year and a half on the faculty of his alma mater (Ohio University), Frank returned to Duke in the Fall of 1999 to take a position as Associate Director for Research in Duke's new Pain and Palliative Care Program.

Frank is currently the Psychology Section Editor for the journal ‘Pain’. He is a fellow of the APA Division (38) Health Psychology and of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. He has been active in the Society of Behavioral Medicine and International Association for the Study of Pain. He has published over 200 papers, as well as 43 book chapters, and 3 books on topics ranging from pain during mammography to the assessment of cancer pain. In recognition of his clinical research, Frank was awarded the Wilbert Fordyce Clinical Investigator Award at the American Pain Society. He has served on numerous NIH Study Sections and currently is on the Behavioral Medicine Interventions and Outcomes Study Section. He is frequently asked to consult with NIH program staff and foundation staff (e.g. Fetzer Institute.)