James D. Kellner

Dr. Jim Kellner is a pediatrician and subspecialist in pediatric infectious diseases. From 2008 to 2018, he was Head of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary and the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services. His research interests are in the field of vaccine preventable infections and he works with colleagues from clinical medicine, public health and basic sciences locally, across Canada, and internationally. His main interest is the pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus), which is the most common bacterial cause worldwide of common to severe infections including middle ear infections, pneumonia and meningitis. He founded two research groups: Calgary Streptococcus pneumoniae Epidemiology Research (CASPER) and Alberta Children’s Hospital Infections, Epidemiology and Vaccine Evaluation (ACHIEVE).

Dr. Kellner has served on the Alberta Advisory Committee on Immunization since 2002 and was Chair for a decade. He is a member of the federal COVID-19 Immunity Task Force Leadership Group and Co-Chair of the Task Force’s Field Studies Working Party. He is leading the multi-faceted Alberta Childhood COVID-19 Cohort (AB3C) Study, is an investigator with the Canadian Immunization Research Network, and is Co-PI for Alberta on the Canadian National Vaccine Safety Network (CANVAS) COVID-19 vaccine project.