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Biography

Dr. Tanya Packer is an accomplished senior scholar and academic leader in clinical and health services research. Her academic career spans three continents (North America, Asia and Australia/New Zealand) and four prestigious universities (Queen’s University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Curtin University and ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ University). Still a licensed occupational therapist, she continues an active research career as mentor, PhD supervisor, and named investigator on several international research projects.

Dr. Packer completed her undergraduate professional qualification as an occupational therapist at Western University, London Ontario, followed by a master’s and PhD in the Department of Anatomy at Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario. Her research has always focused on improving the everyday lives of people with chronic and complex conditions. This includes patient engagement in care, interventions to improve life balance and quality of life, and health services research to improve care. She is an internationally recognized scholar with a Scopus h-index of 27 with more than 120 peer reviewed publications, 40 in the last five years alone. Her lifetime grant capture exceeds $17million, having recently been awarded grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (co-PI), the Patient Centred Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) in the US (co-I and ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ site-PI) and the Princes Beatrix Spierfunds in the Netherlands (co-I). She has supervised over 40 research trainees and continues to supervise PhD students from Canada, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Europe. Also continuing to contribute to self-management science, she has strong, ongoing relationships with researchers at the University of Toronto, McMaster University, Radboud Medical University in the Netherlands and Umea University in Sweden and continues to teach workshops and provide lectures to international audiences.

Education

• BSc(OT), University of Western Ontario
• MSc, Queen’s University
• PhD, Queen’s University

Selected awards and honours

• Dr. Jane Gillett, Research Award. Brain Injury Association of Canada, 2013
• Appreciate Award, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Western Australia, 2009
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Curtin University, 2006

Memberships

• College of Occupational Therapists of Nova Scotia
• Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists

Selected publications 

• Olsson I, Kephart G, Packer T, Björk S, Isaksson U, Chen Y-T, Nordström A & Audulv Ã… (2025). Structural validity and test-retest reliability of the Patient Reported Inventory of Self-Management of Chronic Conditions (PRISM-CC) in a Swedish population of seventy-year-olds with long-term health conditions. J Patient Rep Outcomes 9, 59 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41687-025-00892-3
• Chen Y-T, Lehaman M, Van Denend T, Kish J, Wu Y, Preissner K, Plow M & Packer TL (2025) Features of structured, one-to-one videoconference interventions that actively engage people to manage their chronic conditions: A scoping review. J Med Internet Res 2025;27:e58543 doi: 10.2196/58543PMID: 40009439PMCID: 11904366
• Janssen RM, Ijspeert J, Groothuis JT, van Alfen N, Geurts AC, Graff MJ, Packer TL, & Cup EH. (2025). Patient-Generated Graphs to Measure Pain and Fatigue in Persons with Neuralgic Amyotrophy. The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 13(2), 1-8.https://doi.org/10.15453/2168-6408.2258
• Alizadeh N, Packer TL, Jaswal S, Sturkenboom I, & Warner G. (2024). Client Perceptions of the Individual Packer Managing Fatigue Program: A Mixed-Method Evaluation. OTJR : occupation, participation and health, 44(4), 632–641. https://doi.org/10.1177/15394492241262740
• Packer T, Austin N, Lehman M, Douglas SL, & Plow M. (2024). Factors influencing how informal caregivers of people with multiple sclerosis access and use a curated intervention website: Analysis from an RCT. Digital health, 10, 20552076241228403. https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241228403