Dr. Linda Kwakkenbos is the Co-Director of the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN). After completion of her PhD in Social Science at Radboud University, the Netherlands, in the summer of 2012, Dr. Kwakkenbos started working with Dr. Brett Thombs at McGill University. She initially coordinated the SPIN project, and was later named Co-Director. Linda manages the project on a day-to-day basis with Dr. Brett Thombs and Marie-Eve Carrier.

Dr. Kwakkenbos is currently a Lecturer and Researcher at the Behavioural Science Institute of Radboud University. She teaches in a number of courses in the Psychology Bachelor and Master programs, including research, communication and diagnostic skills trainings. Dr. Kwakkenbos’ research focuses on the development and testing of patient-reported outcome measures, novel research methodologies, and the development of interventions that help contribute to better disease management in chronic diseases, focusing on rare diseases.

To support her work in SPIN, Linda received a Post-doctoral Fellowship from the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé Québec (FRSQ; 2013-2015) and was recently awarded the prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; 2015-2017).