Our Team
SKiP brings together a team of professionals who are dedicated to caring for children and adolescents with chronic pain.
Clinical Team
Dr Kathleen Cooke MMBS FANZCA FFPMANZCA
CO-FOUNDER AND MEDICAL LEAD
Dr. Cooke is co-founder of SKIP and the medical lead for our multi-discliplinary team. Dr. Cooke is a paediatric pain specialist who trained in Anaesthesia, then Pain Medicine through Fellowship at the Professor Tess Cramond Multidisciplinary Pain Unit. Dr. Cooke specialised in paediatric pain whilst consulting at the Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, USA. She has also worked in the United Kingdom and has visited various developing countries. Dr. Cooke is a member of the Queensland Regional Committee, Faculty of Pain Medicine. She also enjoys travel, tennis and horse riding.
Dr Jacqueline Evans
PAIN SPECIALIST
Dr Evans is a specialist in the multidisciplinary pain management of children and adults. She completed anaesthetic specialist training in Queensland before completing her pain medicine specialist training at the Professor Tess Cramond Multidisciplinary Pain Centre at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Dr Evans is currently completing a Diploma of Palliative Care Medicine in Paediatric Palliative Care at the Lady Cilento Children’s hospital.
Huong Nguyen
CLINICAL COORDINATOR / OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST
Huong has been in the Clinical Coordinator role for SKiP since January 2016. She is passionate about multidisciplinary group pain management programs and fostering collaboration, support, and knowledge sharing among health professionals. As one of our occupational therapists, she enjoys helping young people flourish, and function to their fullest – whether at home, at school, at work, in hobbies, social environments, and more.
Zoe Jones
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST
Zoe has worked as an Occupational Therapist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane since 2010. During this time she has enjoyed working with children and adolescents with chronic pain conditions and has completed several projects and presentations in this area of interest. She is excited to be apart of the SKIP team as she loves seeing the impact her job has in enabling children and adolescents to reach their full potential in life.
Nicole Haynes
PHYSIOTHERAPIST
Nicole is a physiotherapist from Q Paediatrics, a private practice which provides services to children, adolescents and young adults. Nicole has worked with the SKiP for many years as a private service provider before joining the team in 2015. Nicole values the service SKiP provides to children and families and is passionate about building awareness of persistent pain in the community and providing education to other health professionals.
Brooke Kohler
PHYSIOTHERAPIST
Brooke is an experienced physiotherapist from QPaediatrics, a private practice which provides services to children, adolescents and young adults. She has recently joined the SKiP team and among her many talents is also doing a PhD contributing to paediatric cancer research.
Samantha Ferguson
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
Samantha is a highly experienced child and adolescent clinical psychologist. She has worked in public child and youth mental health services and private practice. Samantha has a particular interest in the complex interplay between the mind and body in persistent pain and chronic health conditions. She believes strongly in a strengths based approach when supporting young people and their families to take charge of pain.
Penny Mackay
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
Penny is a Clinical Psychologist with extensive experience working with young people and adults experiencing Persistent Pain. She has previously worked in hospitals and on pain management programs and continues to see clients through her private practice. Penny practices from a Cognitive Behavioural Approach tailoring treatment to the individual client. She enjoys getting to know young people and their families to assist them work towards ways in which they can improve their lives. Whilst Penny is now based in North QLD, she supports SKiP remotely.