Rui Li
Research Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine
University of Washington
CSDE Research Areas:
- Environments and Populations
- Health of People and Populations
- Wellbeing of Families and Households
Rui Li, PhD, is a pain epidemiologist and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Principal Investigator at Seattle Children's Research Institute, and Director of the Biostatistics and Epidemiology Research for Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (BEAP). Her research sits at the intersection of population health, developmental science, and health disparities, with a central focus on preventing chronic pain before it becomes a persistent driver of disability and inequity. Using population-based cohorts and longitudinal designs, she investigates when pain risk accelerates across development, why sex and gender disparities emerge, and how early-life family risk and resilience shape pain vulnerability into adulthood. Dr. Li leads an NICHD R01 on early-life social determinants and sex-specific pubertal pathways in adolescent chronic pain development, and a UW pilot award developing a youth-centered chronic pain impact measure for pediatric care and population surveillance. She also serves as Co-Investigator on an NIH HEAL-funded national pediatric learning health system award to improve equitable, patient-centered care for chronic pain. Her work has been recognized with the G.F. Gebhart Journal of Pain Young Investigator Award, the Judy Su Endowed Research Training Award, and the PROMIS Health Organization Scholarship Award, among others. At CSDE, Dr. Li brings a prevention-focused lens to chronic pain and welcomes collaboration with scholars in longitudinal and life-course methods, causal inference, biodemography, and women's and children's health.