Advancing Integrated Pain Care: The Legacy of Kathy J. Davis

Kathy was born on September 7, 1955 in Woodruff Wisconsin into the Croatian community in Eagle River, Wisconsin, one of seven children, daughter of the local sheet-metal master craftsman.  Those who know her have heard many stories of grandparents descended from Croatian immigrants, and their colorful English-Croatian tirades against the antics of Kathy’s 2 brothers and sisters. She was awarded a scholarship to attend Columbia College of nursing in Milwaukee Wisconsin where she earned her registered nursing degree and she worked across many jobs in nursing including neonatal care, school nursing, and after moving to Tucson in intensive care.  She earned her Masters of nursing and then her nurse practitioner degree from the University of Arizona and while writing these degrees she joined the multidisciplinary pain clinic at the University of Arizona as the research nurse and later nurse practitioner… part of a team that included medical and behavioral health providers. It was at the University of Arizona, during the opioid crisis, that it became evident to this multidisciplinary team that unrecognized and untreated trauma was at the root of the pain, physical health, mental health, and well-being struggles of many of the patients and Kathy worked closely with the behavioral health team to establish appropriate chronic pain screening and treatment pathways that recognize this connection between trauma and chronic pain.  She went on to cofound The Integrative Pain Center of Arizona in two thousand two to continue the journey of multidisciplinary care integrating primary care, specialists, and behavioral health.  As part of that team, she was instrumental in earning that clinic honors as an American Pain Society Center of Excellence in 2010, along with the academic programs at University of San Diego and the University of Washington. In addition, Kathy was a faculty member of the Weitzman Institute Pain ECHO program which provided primary care telemedicine pain and behavioral health training in the integrated care of patients with chronic pain.  As part of that program Kathy was an active speaker at primary care meetings, contributing to education of new and veteran primary care providers.

The last seven years of her medical career were spent establishing and leaving a new interdisciplinary pain program bringing together medical providers, behavioral health, social work, and physical therapists at southern Arizona’s largest community health clinic, El Rio Community Clinic.

Kathy was active in organized medicine as well, as a founding board member of the Southern Arizona Nurse Advanced Practice Nurse Association.  As an athlete, Kathy completed twelve full marathons in her lifetime.  She loved riding her Harley-Davidson motorcycle up the winding mountain roads of the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson.  She is the mother of three children and grandmother of eight.  She loved spending time with those grandchildren, and provided such an incredible role model for them through her career achievements, unwavering commitment to innovation in serving others and her community.