Renée El-Gabalawy

Dr. El-Gabalawy is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Clinical Health Psychology and Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine in the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba (UM). She also holds adjunct appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology (Fort Garry), and is an Adjunct Scientist at CancerCare Manitoba. She is currently the Acting Director of Research in the Department of Clinical Health Psychology, Max Rady College of Medicine, UM.

As a Vanier Scholar, she received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from UM in 2015. She also completed a predoctoral research fellowship supported by a CIHR Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement at Yale University in 2013. Before joining the faculty at UM, Dr. El-Gabalawy completed her Clinical Psychology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston Consortium) with a behavioural medicine and civilian trauma clinical emphasis.

Dr. El-Gabalawy's clinical and research expertise is largely centered around medical trauma and psychological impacts of adverse health events. She is particularly interested in the application of innovative technologies such as virtual reality in perioperative settings. Dr. El-Gabalawy has been successful at obtaining millions of dollars of funding locally and nationally as both co- and principal investigator. She has over 140 peer reviewed journal publications and book chapters, and has presented research findings in over 150 local, national and international conference proceedings. She has received numerous academic awards including the Dr. John Arnett Excellence in Teaching Award (2024), Falconer Emerging Researcher Rh Award (2024), and the Aubie Angel Young Investigator Award (2021). Dr. El-Gabalawy also serves on the editorial board of General Hospital Psychiatry, the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Medical Extended Reality, and is the chair of the external advisory board for the Center of Perioperative Mental Health, Washington University.