Founder's Page
Richard A. “Red” Lawhern, PhD
Principal Speaker Emeritus, National Campaign to Protect People in Pain
Richard Arnton Lawhern, PhD (aka “Red”), born June 29, 1944, is a prominent healthcare writer, educator and patient advocate who currently focuses on correcting US public health Agency policy for management of severe chronic pain and addiction. He is currently Principal Speaker Emeritus for the National Campaign to Protect People in Pain.
Early Life and Education
Richard Lawhern was born on June 29, 1944 in Santa Clara, California. He grew up in East Palo Alto, California, and graduated with a BS degree in electrical engineering (with honors) from the Polytechnic University of California at San Luis Obispo in 1966. He subsequently graduated with a MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle (1969), and a PhD degree in Engineering Systems from the University of California Los Angeles in 1973. Both graduate degrees were under full fellowships from the US Air Force Institute of Technology.
First Career: US Air Force (1967–1988)
Richard Lawhern has worked for 59 years in three different technical careers. He served on active duty with the US Air Force from March 1967 to August 1988, with work published in classified and unclassified literature for six fields of signals intelligence analysis.
1967–1970: Flight Test Project Engineer for AN/TPN-19 Landing Control Central radar systems. Rome Air Development Center, Griffiss Air Force Base, NY.
1970–1973: UCLA — PhD studies in Engineering Systems.
1973–1978: Project Engineer and Program Element Manager for Advanced Space Technologies, USAF Space and Missile Systems Division, El Segundo, California.
1978–1982: Field Systems Engineer and program liaison to multiple NATO intelligence services for US Air Force Europe, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Wiesbaden, Germany.
1982–1986: Principal Investigator, Strategic Systems Division, USAF Assistant Chief of Staff for Studies and Analysis. Key contributor to the US Strategic Defense Initiative.
1986–1988: Chief of Systems Integration, B-52 Bomber Modernization Program, Air Force Systems Command, Wright Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH.
Second Career: Defense Aerospace (1988–2009)
1988–1990: Technical writer and section manager, International Signals and Control Inc, later a division of Ferrante International. Led development of tactical doctrine for delivery of advanced smart air-to-ground weapons.
1990–1999: The Analytical Science Corporation, Chantilly VA, integrated as a project engineer and Domain Systems Architect with the US National Reconnaissance Office.
2000–2009: Project Engineer, later Chief Systems Engineer, Advanced Technology Integrated Program Team, Science Applications International Corporation, Tysons Corner, Virginia.
Technology Futurist and Evaluator, US Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.
Subject Matter Expert on “Systems of Systems,” “Network-Centered Operations,” and ad hoc mobile communications networks.
Award for Excellence in Systems Engineering as one of ten engineers in a US engineering acquisition program employing 10,000 technical contributors in 50 States — supporting the largest acquisition program ever attempted by the Army.
Third Career: Healthcare Educator & Patient Advocate (1996–Present)
1996–2001: Webmaster and Member of the Board, US Trigeminal Neuralgia Association. Received the Aesculapius Award for Excellence in Web Based Communications from the Healthcare Internet Hall of Fame (HIIF), 2000.
2002–2008: Lead Moderator for a peer-to-peer patient support group in the Ben's Friends communities for patients with rare disorders.
2012: Author and validation coordinator for an edition of the Trigeminal Neuralgia Fact Sheet by the US National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
2012–Present: Subject matter expert on US public health policies and Agencies, regulating clinical practice in chronic pain and addiction management.
Over 350 papers, articles and interviews published as author or co-author, in a mixture of peer-reviewed clinical journals and mass media. Over 360 citations by other authors in Google Scholar.
Acknowledged as a prominent healthcare industry influencer in Marquise Who's Who, for 2025.
Founder and Principal Speaker Emeritus for the National Campaign to Protect People in Pain.
Frequently invited to submit or provide peer review on papers in US and international journals that publish on pain management.
Key Publications
“An Indictment of US Public Health Policy on Pain Management and Addiction”
Clinical Medicine and Health Research Journal (CMHRJ), Volume 04, Issue 06, Nov–Dec 2024. Republished by invitation at SYNC-2026, March 19, 2026.
“Opioids and chronic pain: an analytic review of the clinical evidence”
Stephen E Nadeau, Jeffrey K Wu, Richard A Lawhern — Frontiers in Pain Research, August 2021.
“The Two Opioid Crises: Problems, Causes, and Potential Solutions”
Stephen E Nadeau, Richard A Lawhern — Medical Research Archives, Volume 11, Issue 12, December 2023.