Class of 2025: PhD grad inspired to serve critically ill children

For University of Calgary graduate Dr. Laurie Lee, PhD'25, convocation marks an opportunity to reflect on a professional and academic journey deeply rooted in service to critically ill children.

Lee is a nurse practitioner and new PhD graduate of the epidemiology graduate program at the Cumming School of Medicine. 

She was honoured with the 2025 Chancellor's Graduate Medal, awarded annually at fall convocation, to celebrate the academic excellence of a graduate student. 

Lee maintained a 4.0 grade point average over three and a half years in the program, while balancing full-time work and family responsibilities, including raising two boys.

“I have been married to an amazing and supportive husband for the past 24 years and I absolutely could not have completed my PhD without his support,” she says.

Throughout her PhD studies, Lee worked clinically as a nurse practitioner in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and served as director of the PICU research program at Alberta Children's Hospital, overseeing more than 40 studies and securing national and international funding. 

Laurie has received multiple awards for her research and leadership. 

Her research focuses on improving comfort and outcomes for critically ill children, including doctoral work studying the impact of therapeutic cuddling in the PICU, addressing pain, agitation, and delirium through family-centered interventions that empower families directly in the child’s care.  

She credits her supervisors, including Drs. Kirsten Fiest, PhD, and Chip Doig, MD, for their guidance through the grad program. 

“They were amazing to work with and terrific mentors. I think at times they were more convinced that I could do this than I was,” she says.

Lee obtained a Master of Nursing from the University of Toronto with a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner specialization in 2009 and through the years has been nationally recognized as an expert in pediatric critical care.

Lee continued her university journey at the University of Calgary, graduating with a PhD this week, and working as a researcher and associate professor in the Faculty of Nursing. 

“Children and their families admitted to the PICU are going through the most terrible experience of their lives,” she says. 

“While providing care is incredibly rewarding, it became clear that we could do better in engaging with patients and their families to improve their comfort during this time.

“The desire to do better for these patients and their families is ultimately what motivated me to pursue my PhD and a career researching ways to improve care in the PICU.”