Dr. Linda Carlson has held the Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology since 2007, is Full Professor in Psychosocial Oncology in the Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology. She is the Director of the Alberta Complementary Therapy and Integrative Oncology (ACTION) Centre and continues to work as a Clinical Psychologist at the Department of Psychosocial Resources at Cancer Care Alberta, where she has provided clinical service since 1997.
Dr. Carlson has received a long line of prestigious national and international research and teaching awards throughout her career, highlighted by the Kawano New Investigator Award from the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) in 2006, the inaugural Research Excellence award from the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology in 2010, the Bernard Fox Memorial Award from IPOS in 2019, a Distinguished Scientist award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine in 2023, and the Dr. Rogers Prize in Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2023. She was the President of the Society for Integrative Oncology from 2021-2023, is Director of Finance for the International Society of Contemplative Research and Co-Editor-in-Chief for the official IPOS journal: The Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice. She is a fellow of the prestigious Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada as well as the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the Mind and Life Institute and the Society for Behavioral Medicine.
Dr. Carlson’s research in Psychosocial Oncology, Integrative Oncology and Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery has been published in many high-impact journals and book chapters, and she published patient-centred book in 2011 with Michael Speca entitled: Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery: A step-by-step MBSR approach to help you cope with treatment and reclaim your life, in addition to a professional training manual in 2009 (2nd Edition 2017; 3rd Edition 2024) with Shauna Shapiro entitled The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating mindfulness into psychology and the helping professions. She has published over 265 peer-reviewed research papers and book chapters, holds several millions of dollars in grant funding and is regularly invited to present her work at international conferences.