Pioneers in Pediatric Psychology: Helping Shape a New Field

It is exciting to think about the early days of pediatric psychology in relation to my own personal and professional development, as the two are so interrelated. I was in the last months of my graduate training when my mentor, Dr Logan Wright, told me about the new field of pediatric psychology and encouraged me to become involved. The events that shaped my life and professional interests to that point were often comingled with the events that shaped the development of this new field. This article reflects on the events—both personal and professional—that helped shape this exciting new field of pediatric psychology.

My Early Years and the Influence of Family

I was born on Mother’s Day in 1937 to William Paschal and Zelma Bynum Willis, the first of seven children. My father was raised in Anadarko, Oklahoma, among his Kiowa Indian family. He was greatly influenced by his Indian heritage, and he instilled in me and my siblings a deep respect and love of our Native American family heritage. He was fortunate to be raised by a mother who valued education and encouraged her youngest son in his studies. Although he lost his mother to a heart attack when he was only 17 years old, he fulfilled her dreams for him by graduating from college and obtaining a graduate degree in history. He was first a teacher and a high school principal before he met my mother and changed his career interests to business. Nevertheless, he remained a scholar and a teacher to his seven children, who fondly remember “historical vacation tours” with Dad teaching us through experiences and his many stories.

My mother was an only child whose mother died of tuberculosis when she was only 3 years old. She was raised by her father and stepmother as a lively, independent young lady who eventually became an astute businesswoman. My maternal grandfather, Herb Bynum, was the eldest of 10 children, and he established and operated many businesses in northeastern Oklahoma—often setting up his younger siblings in business as they came of age. Likewise, when his only daughter met and married Bill Willis, he helped them get established in the general merchandise business in Locust Grove, and later Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

My early years were spent in a number of cities in northeastern Oklahoma where my parents operated businesses and my father completed his Master’s degree in History from the University of Tulsa. By the age of 12 years, I and my family had settled in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where my parents owned and operated grocery, hardware, and clothing stores. When I was not taking care of my younger siblings, I worked in our stores, and by age 18 years, accompanied my parents to the huge buyers’ markets in Dallas to help select merchandise for the stores. I learned a great deal about marketing, selling, advertising, bookkeeping, personnel, and general business management in those years. It was my parents’ intention that I assume management of one of their businesses when I completed college. I remember learning valuable lessons from my parents and grandparents about operating a business, but also about showing compassion and generosity toward those in need. I remember that my mother often provided clothing free of charge or at wholesale prices to families who were struggling to buy school clothes for their large families. I was a very hard working and responsible young person who missed out on many peer activities owing to my work in the stores or at home, caring for my six younger siblings. Indeed, by the time the seventh child, Doak, was born, I was 16 years old.

One of the vivid memories of my childhood was being sent by my mother to the country doctor year after year for exams to determine if I was “hyperactive.” In those days, the doctor lacked the modern, simple techniques (at that time) for testing overactive children, so he kept testing my thyroid function. I was subjected to elaborate thyroid tests on multiple occasions, which always indicated no problems. Finally, when I was about 13 years old, the doctor gave up testing and said, “Diane, you just have a lot of energy, and there is nothing wrong with you physically.” In retrospect, I suspect that I probably did (and still do) have ADHD, but the excess energy has often been an asset in a busy career once I learned to channel it and use it to my advantage. Thinking back on some of my youthful risk-taking activities (e.g., riding a bike down a steep hill while perched on the shoulders of a friend), it is rather amazing that I survived to adulthood! During adolescence, I channeled my high energy into rodeo activities—competing in barrel racing events and winning many awards. I also loved riding my horse alone across the fields of my family’s farm for hours at a time—perhaps as the only way to find peace and solitude in such a large, vigorous, active family.

When I entered college at Northeastern State University (NSU) in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, I decided to major in Biology because I liked this subject so much in high school. I considered preparing for medical school or some other profession in the medical field. I was reluctant to tell my parents that I had decided I did not want to live my life in a small town running a clothing store. When I finally indicated my desire for a different profession, my parents were very accepting and supportive. Indeed, events that were to change the direction of their lives over the next three decades were beginning to develop.

Two years before I graduated from college, influential people in Tahlequah asked my father to run for the Oklahoma State legislature. When he agreed to run for State Representative, I gave the first of several campaign speeches for him over the radio, went door to door handing out pamphlets, and worked actively in his campaign. My father won by a large margin and began his first legislative term in 1958. He was later known as “the Kiowa from Tahlequah,” and he served for 28 years in the State House of Representatives until his retirement in 1986. During his tenure, he was elected to three terms as Speaker of the House. I have learned from his legislative colleagues that this honor was bestowed on him because they viewed him as a fair, open-minded, and honest Statesman who worked diligently to improve the lives of the people of Oklahoma without concern for his own power or recognition. Having been raised in an area where there was much poverty, my father was committed to improving services for persons who were poor or had disabilities, particularly those with mental illness. He was also a devoted advocate for improving educational opportunities for the citizens of Oklahoma and he was extremely knowledgeable about State finances. I learned from my father that much good can be done for others through the legislative process, and that one can advocate for important issues both inside and outside of elective office. It was through his example that the seeds of my own interest in advocacy were sown, and hopefully have been reaped through the years of my professional practice, as I will discuss later (DeLeon, Folen, Jennings, Willis, & Wright, 1991; Willis, 1976, 1977, 2000, 2002; Willis, DeLeon, Heldring, & Haldane, 2014; Willis & Spicer, 2013).

Figure 1.

Diane Willis, PhD, President, Society of Pediatric Psychology, 1976--77.

My Journey Into Psychology

After completing my undergraduate studies in biology at NSU in 1959, I decided to enter the field of medical technology with an emphasis on microbiology. I was accepted at St. John’s Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and entered their medical technology program in January 1960. After completing my training in 1961 and passing the national examinations, I received the Medical Technologist (American Society of Clinical Pathology) certification and joined a two-person lab at a busy medical clinic in Tulsa. After about a year of this work, I realized that I preferred working with people more than with microbes in the lab. At the same time, my personal journey led me to consider a religious calling and exploration of my beliefs. I had had a lifelong dream to attend seminary, so in 1962 I decided to enroll in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, in their religious education program. While attending seminary, I supported myself financially by working part-time in the Cardiovascular Lab at the University Hospital in Louisville. During this wonderful year I studied under Wayne Oates, PhD—a pastoral psychologist, author, and theologian whose guidance and insight were very helpful to me in my personal journey. As a result of his mentoring and my own introspection, I became certain that I would like to become a psychologist. After my first year of seminary, I applied to the psychology program at George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee, where Nicholas Hobbs, Jules Seeman, Susan Gray, and Larry Wrightsman were members of the faculty. I was accepted for enrollment, and moved there in 1963 to begin graduate studies in psychology.

Figure 2.

Diane Willis, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 2014.

Psychology students at Peabody were encouraged to minor in Special Education at that time, so I had the great fortune of studying with Lloyd Dunn, who developed The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and was well respected in the field of mental retardation research. I also studied with Sam Ashcroft, well known for his research on individuals who were blind or visually impaired. Studying with these men and women was exciting, to say the least. The atmosphere at Peabody was intellectually stimulating, very competitive, and challenging. Many of the faculty were on the forefront of national initiatives. For example, Nicholas Hobbs was president-elect of APA at that time and he was a pioneer in showing how the scientific knowledge base in psychology could be applied to guide policy development. His legacy remains evident today through the Social Policy institute he established at Vanderbilt University (which merged with George Peabody College). Also, Susan Gray’s programs and research at Peabody were a precursor to the establishment of the national Head Start program. These faculty provided support, challenges, and strong role models to the impressionable graduate students. Logan Wright, who would later become an important mentor for me in Oklahoma, was a graduate of this program.

During my graduate training at Peabody, I continued to work as a medical technologist at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, took advanced zoology courses along with my psychology courses, served as a lab assistant in basic zoology courses, and for a time, managed the microbiology section at the hospital where I established more modern procedures for the lab. Indeed, the head of pathology at the hospital offered to pay for my graduate education in microbiology if I would change my major to zoology or microbiology, manage the microbiology lab, and direct the hospital’s Medical Technology training program. I still loved microbiology, but ultimately I declined his wonderful offer to continue my studies in psychology.

After 2 years at Peabody, I earned my Master of Arts degree in psychology, awarded in May 1965. Toward the end of my master’s training, I began getting homesick for my family, and after a visit to the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) psychology training program, I decided to move “home.” Dr Wrightsman at Peabody advised me that it would be better to remain at Peabody to continue my PhD training rather than transferring mid-stream, but I convinced myself that my family needed me closer to home. My doctoral training program at OU was in Experimental Developmental Psychology, and it provided me a sound theoretical foundation for my later interests in clinical psychology. I was offered the opportunity to enter the clinical training program at OU, but after a semester in the program I decided that the experimental and developmental curriculum was a better avenue of study for me. I knew that I could eventually pursue my clinical training via a 2-year postdoctoral training program, as was the accepted practice at the time. While at OU, I especially valued my work with Muzafer Sherif, an internationally known social psychologist, and with Oscar Parsons, an internationally known neuropsychologist, with whom I took directed readings and worked as a research assistant in his neuropsychology lab at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC). Also, while working on my doctorate, I worked part-time, establishing a psychology clinic and providing psychological services at the John W. Keys Speech and Hearing Center—a clinic of the Department of Communication Disorders at OUHSC. Logan Wright was my supervisor during this time.

I completed my PhD program at the University of Oklahoma in 1969 (although my degree was awarded in 1970), and I was accepted for a 2-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Psychology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in 1969. It was there that I worked more closely with Logan Wright, one of the pioneers in pediatric psychology. It was exciting to be back in a hospital setting, where I often visited the lab and viewed hematology slides. At Children’s Hospital I could combine my interests in psychology and biology, as well as my medical technology knowledge. My understanding of the significance of lab test results for the patients, and my appreciation of the organic aspects of their problems, made me a better psychologist. I considered the possible organic factors that influenced children’s behavior and development, and did not tend to view a child’s problems as always being attributed to his/her environment or parenting issues, as was the trend in those days. I learned the importance of taking a thorough history, and the need to consider medical as well as environmental and familial factors that may impact a child’s behavior. I also learned the importance of collaborative practice with colleagues in other disciplines (e.g., pediatrics, social work, speech/language pathology, nursing, occupational and physical therapy) in providing integrated services to young patients and their families. As part of that collaboration, I honed my skills in consultation and learned the importance of making my interventions practical, relevant, and easy to carry out in the medical setting. It was a different approach to practice than the ones to which I had been exposed in my graduate training at Peabody and OU. In 1971 I had completed my training and was ready for my first full-time position as a psychologist.

My Introduction to Pediatric Psychology

It is at this juncture that my own professional development became intertwined with the emergence of the field of pediatric psychology. In fact, it was during 1968 while I was still a graduate student at OU but doing some work at OUHSC with Oscar Parsons, that I was first introduced to the field. I was completing my PhD at the time, and was on staff at the Child Study Center. One day, Logan Wright walked to my office to supervise me on a child patient, and he brought me a membership form to join “our new Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP)” organization. The form was accompanied by a two-page letter from Dorothea Ross that outlined guidelines for membership. Membership at that time was open to those working in pediatric settings who: (1) were already members of APA and Section 1 of Division 12; (2) were APA members, but not yet Section 1 members (whereby one could fill out the form to join Section 1, attach a check for $5.00, and send it to Dorothea); and/or (3) psychologists qualified to join APA but who were not yet members or affiliate members (i.e., those with a Master’s degree in psychology from an accredited university). As noted, membership dues for all three categories were $5.00 per year, and membership entitled members to the SPP Newsletter, soon to be organized and published by Lee Salk, with Gail Gardner as the editor. The first newsletter of SPP was entitled “Pediatric Psychology.” Logan Wright, Lee Salk, and Dorothea Ross were the Founders of the organization, and my mentor, Logan Wright, served as our first President in 1969. The first issue of Pediatric Psychology was published in March 1969 with articles by the editor, Logan Wright, Lee Salk, Donald Routh, and New York pediatrician W.W. McCrory. Membership included 97 psychologists. That same year, the SPP presented its first symposium at the APA annual convention in Washington, DC, on “Issues concerning the expansion of psychology within pediatric settings.” This presentation was followed by a business meeting and banquet with Senator George McGovern addressing the group. SPP was on its way!! During the next 2 years (1970–1972), Lee Salk served as President but no newsletter was published during this era.

Gail Gardner, the previous newsletter editor, moved from Cornell Medical Center to the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver, and resigned as editor. It was 2 years before the next newsletter was published by Allan Barclay, and only one issue was published in 1972. By 1972, I was elected to serve on the board of SPP as a member-at-large. During those early years of SPP, the board held several mid-year meetings at Children’s hospital in Oklahoma City. SPP had a very limited budget, so we generally paid our own way to meetings, shared hotel rooms, or stayed in each other’s homes. We were a close knit group who formed lasting friendships and were devoted to developing the new field of pediatric psychology. When Art Wiens became President, he revitalized SPP at our 1972 mid-winter meeting in Oklahoma City. To my knowledge, this may have been the first face-to-face mid-year meeting for the Executive Committee of SPP.

Art Wiens proposed that we publish four issues per year of the SPP newsletter and proposed appointing an editorial board who would be responsible for four areas: literature and research, training, the Federal scene, and professional practice. SPP organizational matters and postings of job availability were also to be included. Art appointed me as Associate Editor. At the mid-winter meeting of the Executive Committee in Oklahoma, I invited Logan Wright and Dorothea Ross to manage articles pertaining to literature and research. Donald Routh and Joe Weaver were recommended for the topic of training. Milton Shore and Allan Barclay were asked to develop and manage the section on Federal and national issues, and Lee Salk and Don Freedheim would manage the section on professional practice. All of them accepted except for Dorothea Ross, who wrote to me on January 11, 1973 saying that she had left Stanford University and had accepted a new position at University of California San Francisco to develop a new curriculum for “EMR,” known at that time as “Educably Mentally Retarded” children. In her letter, Dorothea wrote that after a 1-year trial with the new curriculum, the children had “made great gains and maintained these gains.” She wrote, “Their progress has accelerated this year, and we are having difficulty keeping far enough ahead of them for sanity to prevail.” Needless to say, Dorothea was quite a forward-thinking researcher!!

By January 29, 1973, I sent Allan Barclay several articles for the newsletter, a new membership form, and numerous job postings. Art Wiens, in the meantime, met with Irwin Friedman of Section 1 (Section on Clinical Child Psychology) and gained support in helping SPP get a working budget. In addition, he talked to Gerald Marsden of Section 1 and obtained an agreement that the dues statement for Section 1 would also include a paragraph calling for an additional $5.00 (Wow!) dues payment for membership in SPP. At that same mid-year meeting chaired by Art Wiens, we also decided to start sending the newsletter to the chairs of all departments of pediatrics in medical schools across the country. I was charged with writing Tom Kenny, president of SPP in 1975–1976 and Director of Pediatric Psychology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, about the reorganization of the newsletter, and he promptly sent me the mailing list of all pediatric chairs. He then wrote to Stan Harrison, MD, of the American Academy of Pediatrics, explaining the purpose of SPP and the desire to establish a liaison between the two organizations. By March 1973, the first of the newsletter issues was completed and Allan Barclay’s letter to me, dated September 3, 1973, stated, “The newsletter is at the printer’s. How to finance it is in the lap of the gods …” By May 2, 1973, Allan resigned as newsletter editor owing to his increased involvement in APA committees, and on May 3, 1973, Art Wiens asked me to assume responsibility as editor of the newsletter.

With the regular and organized publishing of three to four issues of the SPP newsletter, our membership steadily grew, and by the end of 1973, it had increased from 254 to 305 members. I am amused to think that the SPP dues in 1968 were $5.00 per year! No wonder we were always in the red, borrowing money from Dorothea Ross (over $400) and obtaining an interest-free loan of $1,000 from Larry Raskins. THESE WERE LARGE SUMS OF MONEY FOR THE TIME! We finally paid our debt to Larry and Dorothea in 1974.

As the new editor of the newsletter, I began developing topical themes for each issue. In my files are copies of many letters written to noted psychologists soliciting articles or other news items on various topics in pediatric psychology. The themes in those early newsletters included such topics as juvenile diabetes, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, abused and neglected children, child neuropsychology, and effects of hospitalization on children. I found that colleagues around the country were eager to participate and were excited about the development of pediatric psychology. Soon we had so many articles that the board agreed to the editor’s suggestion that the newsletter be transformed into a journal. Thus, by the end of 1975, SPP had over 450 members and a new journal, The Journal of Pediatric Psychology (JPP)! From its inception, JPP’s greatest problem was money! In 1977, the board of SPP raised membership dues to $10.00 per year, and in 1978 they raised dues again to $15.00 per year. Institutional subscriptions for the journal were $15 per volume at that time! Despite the dues increases, by the end of 1977 SPP had grown to 734 members and affiliates. The new field had been launched, and my own professional career was off and running as well. During 1978–1979, Phyllis Magrab negotiated a contract with Plenum Press to assume publication of JPP, which bailed SPP out of a financial hole. Having worried about finances for 4 years as editor of the newsletter and JPP, I promptly sent a letter of congratulations to Phyllis on December 2, 1979.

Pediatric Psychology at OUHSC

Following completion of my postdoctoral training from OUHSC in 1971, I accepted the position of Chief Psychologist at the John W. Keys Speech & Hearing Center and Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology in the Department of Communication Disorders, OUHSC. I developed and taught two courses (developmental psychology and tests and measurement) for graduate students in the Communication Disorders Program, consulted on the various services such as the Cleft-Palate Team and Day-School for Hearing Impaired Children, and provided evaluation and treatment services to children and families. Stemming from my work at the Speech and Hearing clinics, articles and chapters were published (Carpenter & Willis, 1972; Elbert & Willis, 1984; Willis, Wright, & Wolfe, 1973).

During this time, I also worked with Logan Wright in the Pediatric Psychology program at Children’s Hospital on various services and projects. Logan was writing a book and wanted to step down as Director of the Pediatric Psychology program. In 1974, I accepted Logan’s offer to join him in the pediatric psychology program at Children’s Hospital as Coordinator of Inpatient Pediatric Psychology services and as Assistant Director of Pediatric Psychology. After I moved to Children’s Hospital, Logan charged me with meeting with the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics on matters such as getting approval for new positions. David Vore, PhD, had resigned and accepted a position in Flint, Michigan, so pediatric psychology had only two full-time positions. Memos and meetings with Harris Riley, MD, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics resulted in two new positions, which were filled by pediatric psychologists Eugene Walker and Arlene Schaefer. To our surprise, Dr Riley agreed to designate our service as a separate service in the new hospital by-laws, with a Chief of Service having full voting rights and equal parity with physicians. I never dreamed we could obtain this privilege but we did. I might add that our service was very popular and we were very busy. I often worked from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. doing consults in the renal, asthma, diabetes, and hematology-oncology units, supervising pediatric psychology interns in the OUHSC APA-accredited internship program, and providing direct psychological services involving assessment and treatment. Psychologists steeped in the history of SPP know that Logan’s research was ground breaking and demonstrated the enormous positive impact psychology could have in a pediatric setting. He was a tremendous positive force in my life and in the lives of those who completed internships in pediatric psychology.

The popularity of our pediatric psychology consultation service was gratifying, but it was too much for the two of us to handle. After a year or two of working from dawn to dusk, and because I wanted a saner life, I decided to consider a position that I had previously rejected. I accepted the position of Director of Psychological Services at the Child Study Center (CSC), a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic of Children’s Hospital that provided evaluation and treatment for children with medical and/or developmental disabilities and their families. The CSC was located in a two-story building across the street from Children’s Hospital. With the hiring of Eugene “Gene” Walker and Arlene Schaefer, pediatric psychology within Children’s Hospital was in excellent hands. The program soon grew to include new pediatric psychologists (Drs. Roberta Olson, Chuck Elliott, and Jeff Zimmerman), and it flourished in Children’s Hospital.

The CSC position provided an opportunity for me to develop a different sort of pediatric psychology practice—one that was focused on outpatient services to children with medical or developmental disorders who often had complex genetic, neurological, or other physical disorders as well. The CSC was directed by a pediatric neurologist and I was hired as Chief Psychologist. At first, the staff was quite small, but by the late 1970s, funding was obtained by the Director, Ellidee Thomas, MD, for a new building, and the staff increased from 5 to over 30 people. The multidisciplinary staff included physicians, social workers, special education teachers, physical and occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists as well as psychologists and psychometrists. I was very fortunate to be able to hire such a talented psychology and learning disabilities staff/faculty as Cheryl Bodiford McNeil, Jan L. Culbertson, Robin H. Gurwitch, Jean Elbert, Jane Silovsky, Darleene Harris (psychometrist), and my first post-doctoral psychologist Delores “Dee” Bigfoot, PhD. Dee, a full-blood Caddo Indian psychologist, and I initiated outreach programs to serve Native Americans (more on this later).

While at the Child Study Center, I continued working at Children’s Hospital, establishing the Child Protection Committee (CPC) after Congress passed the Child Abuse Act in the late 1970s. I had developed an outline of the purpose and function of a CPC to the Chair of Pediatrics, who placed his stamp of approval on such a committee. Thus began the first CPC in the State of Oklahoma. It was frustrating to me though, to review, evaluate, or treat these children and not be able to obtain services for them elsewhere owing to lack of reimbursement under Medicaid. Logan Wright and I approached the Medical Director of the State Department of Human Services (Bertha Levy, MD) and pointed out the unfair treatment of children who were poor and/or abused. While they could be seen free of charge at our hospital, there were too many for us to evaluate or treat ourselves. Thus, the Medical Director agreed with our plea and, to the best of my knowledge, Oklahoma became the first state in the United States to reimburse psychological services under Medicaid.

During this time, I continued to consult in the old Diagnostic and Evaluation Clinic at Children’s Hospital where it was evident that we needed more comprehensive assessment and treatment programs for children with learning and behavior disorders. Out of my consultation in this clinic and meeting with some of the pediatric faculty, we developed a comprehensive assessment and treatment program for children with specific learning disabilities (LD) at Child Study Center. We established strategies for teaching children with LD that could be implemented in their own school setting. CSC thus became a leader in establishing LD programs across Oklahoma before it became popular to do so nationwide. About this time we were very fortunate to hire Dr. Jean Elbert, a graduate of the Communication Disorders program at Northwestern University under H. Myklebust. Given the influence of my training at George Peabody College and my interest in learning disabilities, child abuse, and children with developmental disabilities, I coedited a book on children with developmental disabilities (Swanson & Willis, 1979), published other articles on the rights of children under Public Law 94-142 (Willis, 1971), coedited a book on prevention of child maltreatment (Willis, Holden, & Rosenberg, 1992), and published a chapter on preventing violence at the societal level (Willis & Silovsky, 1998).

Our second project at CSC involved working with the neonatologists at Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma (CHO) to develop a program for at-risk infants with developmental delays and their families. We investigated the costs of helping infants stay alive at that time, and learned that infants’ hospital expenses were ranging from $25,000 to $250,000. We felt that it was not in the child’s best interests to discharge them home with no intensive early intervention. Also, we found that many of the parents were terrified to take such a sick, disabled, infant home with them. Thereafter, discharge from CHO meant referral to CSC’s Infant Clinic, which I co-established with Ellidee Thomas, MD, and Gertrude Ford (a teacher). In this clinic, we provided physical and occupational therapy (PT/OT), psychological treatment, social services, and medical services for the infant and his/her family. Families who lived in rural areas far from Oklahoma City were given a videotape demonstrating how to provide developmental stimulation for their infant, and every month or two they returned for a check-up, progress report, and new tapes. The Infant Clinic was the first of its kind in Oklahoma and was founded long before Public Law 99-457 and Sooner Start mandated early intervention services. Could this have been the forerunner of a “systems of care” program?

While working with neurologists Peggy Wisdom, MD, and John Bodensteiner, MD, it became evident that the CSC needed to develop a pediatric neuropsychology program to assess and develop intervention programs for children with head injuries, cancer, brain tumors, seizures, and other neurological disorders. The Director of the CSC and I had already published a chapter on seizure disorders in children (Willis & Thomas, 1978), but I knew we needed to expand the evaluations of children with a broad range of neurological disorders. I received approval to recruit nationwide for a pediatric neuropsychologist, and we successfully recruited Dr. Jan L Culbertson from Vanderbilt University. She had worked closely with Peggy Ferry, MD, an internationally known pediatric neurologist, and Peggy wrote a glowing letter of support for Dr. Culbertson. Thus, the CSC and Children’s Hospital initiated the first pediatric neuropsychology program in the State of Oklahoma.

In the early 1980s, CSC again took the lead in developing programs for the increasing referrals of children with ADHD and behavior disorders. I involved the psychologists at the CSC in working with me to develop an ADHD Clinic and a Behavior Clinic, both of which have flourished and continue to have a heavy flow of patient referrals. Having talked at length with my friend and colleague Sheila Eyberg, a pediatric psychologist at University of Florida who developed Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), we brought on an intern from her program (Cheryl Bodiford—now Cheryl Bodiford McNeil) and hired Cheryl to a psychology faculty position after she completed her internship. She demonstrated outstanding skills as a clinical psychologist. Cheryl developed the PCIT program at CSC, and through contracts she trained master’s level professionals at Oklahoma Guidance Centers across the State. Later Dr. Beverly Funderburk was hired to work with interns and families whose children needed PCIT or other behavioral treatments. Dr. Funderburk was another graduate of Sheila Eyberg’s program. She continues today providing outstanding training and supervision of interns at CSC. As Children’s Hospital and CSC began seeing more babies affected by substance abuse, pediatric psychology developed the first drug/alcohol program for infants and toddlers. A committee was formed at CSC that included faculty from pharmacy, psychiatry, communication disorders, PT/OT, pediatrics, and psychology. At CSC we developed the first Drug/Alcohol clinic, later renamed the ABC (A Better Chance) Clinic by Robin Gurwitch, PhD, whom I hired to run a multidisciplinary clinic that involved our existing PT/OT, speech, social work, and pediatric staff. We anticipated perhaps 50 referrals per year, but were shocked when that number was reached in a few months. Thanks to the generosity of the Department of Human Services, patients could be seen free of charge initially, and later these services were covered by a grant for a couple of years. This clinic dove-tailed with the earlier infant clinic and demonstrated another example of a Systems of Care model being popularized today.

These clinics, and the psychologists who directed them, have provided cutting-edge training opportunities for pediatric residents, medical students, and trainees from all the allied health professions (i.e., psychology, OT, PT, speech/language pathology, and social work) as well. It was a joy to recruit Jean Elbert and psychologists Jan L. Culbertson, Beverly Funderburk, Cheryl McNeil, and Robin Gurwitch as faculty at the CSC, as well as provide training to psychology interns such as Michael Roberts, Wayne Holden, Susan Jay, and Jane Silovsky. Most of these interns have gone on to national prominence and have been leaders in the field. Publications with past interns were numerous (Holden, Willis, & Foltz, 1989; Roberts, Koocher, Routh, & Willis, 1993; Silovsky & Willis, 2000; Willis & Bigfoot, 2003; Willis, Holden, & Rosenberg, 1992; Willis & Silovsky, 1998).

With Dee Bigfoot on board as a postdoctoral fellow at CSC, she and I expanded outreach programs to Native American children and families. As a Native American myself (Kiowa Tribe), I consulted with various tribes, obtained a contract for CSC to evaluate Native American children with complex learning or behavior disorders, helped reservation tribes establish their Early Head Start programs, provided training in child abuse/neglect at Native American conferences, and served as a consultant 1 day per week, seeing patients at a rural Native American clinic. In my retirement, I continue to see Native American patients 1 day per week in two Native American pediatric psychology clinics. For years, psychology interns and postdoctoral fellows have accompanied me to these clinics as a part of their training.

After Dee Bigfoot completed her postdoctoral fellowship at CSC, she was offered a position in the OUHSC Center on Child Abuse & Neglect, directed by Barbara Bonner, PhD. She and Barbara obtained grant funding to teach tribal behavioral health professionals across the United States on ways to identify and treat child-abuse victims. I was fortunate to teach in this program (called Project Making Medicine), and to visit even more Indian reservation programs.

The Coming of Age of SPP

In the early days, the SPP functioned loosely under the umbrella of Division 12 Section 1 (Clinical Child Psychology). Section 1 gave us enormous support and program hours at the APA convention, but our executive committee felt that we needed a “home.” We considered becoming a section under Division 12, but a new Division on Children, Youth, and Families was being proposed to APA Council at that time, and we seriously considered becoming a section under that Division. Members of SPP went to Council to lobby for the new Division, which passed Council and became Division 37. However, Division 37 and another new division (i.e., Division 38—Health Psychology) voted not to have sections. We ultimately decided to become a section under Division 12 in 1979. Division 12 stated that they would cover the journals’ liability and be supportive of the journal, thus sealing our fate in a very positive manner.

SPP became Division 12, Section V in 1979. As soon as we published the first issue of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology in 1975, sample copies were sent to Psychological Abstracts (PA). By August 1976 the coverage selector for the abstracts wrote me to say that PA wanted to begin abstracting articles from our journal. During all of those early years of hard work, I had declined to be a nominee for president of SPP because I was newsletter editor and then journal editor. After I accepted the nomination for president-elect of SPP, I resigned as editor of JPP. In 1976 I was honored to be elected president of SPP, and Donald K. Routh became the second editor of JPP.

When I reminisce about those early years of SPP, I feel energized and grateful. Energized because we (Art Wiens, Carolyn Schroeder, June Tuma, Donald Routh, Larry Raskin, Logan Wright, Lee Salk, Elizabeth King, Phyllis Magrab, and Tom Kenny) were like explorers who had discovered some new world. We were excited and devoted members of SPP, scouring the states for more new members, ever expanding the original Executive Committee to begin to add chairs of committees on Training, Awards, Legislation, and Membership, liaisons with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and a representative to Division 12 Board of Directors. We continued to pay most of our own expenses to EC meetings, but discussion rarely occurred regarding our own personal travel expenses. Grateful, because most of those early EC members became my lifelong friends whom I still see, talk to by phone, email, or visit. We mixed our professional and personal lives a great deal. For example, Carolyn Schroeder taught me a great deal about new models of pediatric psychology practice in primary care settings, and Elizabeth (Betty) King taught me about more effective ways to work with cancer patients and their families. I have long admired the early work of Phyllis Magrab whose publications and work at Georgetown were helpful in my work. Donald Routh has been a wonderful mentor to many, now older, pediatric psychologists, and it has been a privilege to watch the growth and development of such former OUHSC interns as Michael Roberts, Wayne Holden, Cheryl McNeil, and Jane Silovsky—all of whom have contributed enormously to psychology. As noted earlier, my first postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Delores Bigfoot, has gone on to national recognition for her work with American Indians/Alaska Natives. June Tuma, besides developing our first SPP training directory in 1976–1977, was also a gardener, and after meetings would mail me plants from her own garden. Logan Wright was my mentor, friend, and later my neighbor who hosted wonderful New Year’s Day receptions along with an offer to accompany him on a cattle drive! Art Wiens lifted pediatric psychology out of the doldrums during his presidency, reenergized the organization, and became my friend.

When I was a graduate student, psychologists working in hospitals, including pediatric psychologists, was not a new phenomenon. But, there was certainly no organized body such as SPP. Considering the research training that psychologists possess and the pediatric problems that have been treated successfully by behavioral techniques, physicians have seen the value of including pediatric psychology faculty in service delivery, training, and research. My mentor and supervisor, Logan Wright, was viewed as a miracle worker after he successfully “cured” young children of their tracheotomy addiction or successfully treated enuresis and encopresis.

When I think of all the contributions pediatric psychologists can make to the welfare of children and families, I am heartened by this knowledge. Pediatric psychologists are not only trained in clinical or developmental areas, but also they have the expertise to develop and formulate interdisciplinary mechanisms to carry out effective treatment of the whole child and family.

Summary and Concluding Remarks

In the 46 years since SPP was created, progress has been made in numerous areas. The SPP became a Division within APA, the Journal of Pediatric Psychology is recognized as an outstanding publication, and the research published today adds enormously to the understanding, and in many instances the treatment, of medical conditions. Pediatric Psychology as a field has come of age, and it now has an empirically based science undergirding its clinical applications. Pediatric Psychology as a field has the opportunity to move into a leadership role within psychology, given the evolving emphasis on training and practice in integrated health care. Pediatric psychologists have been in the forefront of providing integrated health care for years, and now serve as role models for others in the field.

When I mentor young pediatric psychologists today, I encourage them to think beyond their offices or hospital wards to the issues facing our society in which they might be involved. For example, health issues such as diabetes and obesity are taking a toll on our population, and the most effective approaches to treatment involve the integration of health and mental health approaches that are family- and client-centered. Substance abuse is a frequent problem, and yet, few pediatric psychologists are well trained to treat this population. Instead we focus on working in neonatal intensive care units that serve infants born to addictive parents. Gun violence, domestic violence, and child abuse are occurring in epidemic proportions and are taking a toll on the population. Pediatric psychologists could be more involved in research examining the impact of the constant depiction of violence in video games and television programming for young children. More than once, I have asked parents to limit access to such “games” owing to the impact on their children’s behavioral and emotional functioning. Perhaps a greater focus on how we disseminate our knowledge about the impact of violence more effectively could make a difference. These are just a few of the larger societal issues in which pediatric psychologists can have a potential impact.

Of great importance to pediatric psychology interns, fellows, and faculty is the professional connections we make in our field, such as through membership in APA and the Society of Pediatric Psychology. There is strength in numbers at the legislative level, and long experience in advocacy has taught me about the importance of speaking up and advocating for families and children at the State and national level (e.g., for such areas as increased research funding, improved insurance coverage for psychological services, and for support of programs such as Early Head Start, and monies for competent, well-trained psychologists to work in treatment centers). I would encourage trainees and members to join APA, and local, State, and regional organizations to participate in their meetings and governance. Through sharing our knowledge in pediatric psychology, we have an opportunity to both move the field forward and also to help society.