Dr. Catherine Carter Snell is an Associate Professor and Nurse Education Scholar in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Mount Royal University in Calgary. She worked for over 30 years in Trauma nursing (Emergency and ICU) and has 14 years experience working with hundreds of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. She qualified many times as an expert witness in sexual assault cases in Canadian courts and is the recipient of a number of awards for her research and work in Forensic nursing. These include a research dissertation award from Sigma Theta Tau and the Centennial medal from the Canadian Nurses’ Association and an achievement award with the International Association of Forensic Nurses. She co-founded The Forensic Nurses Society of Canada.

She is certified Nationally as an Emergency nurse and was the first Canadian to be Internationally certified as a sexual assault nurse examiner. Her guide to injuries and physical findings with trauma, called the BALD STEP guide, has recently been integrated into the RCMP sexual assault kits across Canada and is also used by a number of American training programs. Most recently she has been working with multidisciplinary teams in Alberta and the Maritimes to improve sexual assault services, including a 4 hour online program for Emergency nurses and teaches online sexual assault courses in addition to her undergraduate teaching responsibilities.

Preventing violence and reducing the physical and psychological consequences of interpersonal violence.