Oklahoma State doing more to advance children’s health

Friday, June 8, 2018

The new Center for Pediatric Psychology at Oklahoma State University is expected to help the university and the state use their national status as leaders in the field of children’s health to do more for kids and their families.

The center’s director, Larry Mullins, the Vaughn Vennerberg II Chair of Psychology, said the center will serve as a hub for coordinated research and training activities and a way to use its state and national collaborations to make a difference for those it ultimately serves.

“There are over 20 million children in the U.S. living with chronic health conditions,” Mullins said. “Through pediatric psychology, we seek to understand the factors that put youths with chronic illnesses and their families at risk for additional health problems. We’re proud to play a part in this cause to help more of these children and families.”

The Center for Pediatric Psychology at OSU’s specific mission is to engage in cutting-edge scientific discovery related to all aspects of children’s health, as well as their families, and to foster integrated research, training and clinical service delivery. 

Mullins also anticipates the center will be an important tool for recruiting outstanding faculty and graduate students.

“We have a long history of bringing in some of the best graduate students in the country to train in pediatric psychology,” Mullins said. “Establishing the Center for Pediatric Psychology formalizes what we’ve been doing and allows us to move forward in a much more thoughtful manner. It will help us better fund our graduate students and our research, and really support the growth of a network across the state.” 

Two years of funding from the College of Arts and Sciences at OSU has created a speaker series as well as a graduate-student position to help coordinate activities at the new center. The long-term goal is to add more funding and training resources for graduate students and research facilities such as a dedicated suite that will serve as the program’s physical home.

Joining Mullins as charter faculty are John M. Chaney and Ashley (Hum) Clawson. The trio makes OSU one of only three American universities with three full-time pediatric psychologists.

“Most universities only have one faculty member in this area,” Mullins said. “That’s one reason we are easily in the top five pediatric psychology training programs in the country. Plus, Oklahoma is the birthplace of the field of pediatric psychology. Logan Wright coined that term at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in the late 1960s.

“OU is still a leading training facility for interns and postdocs, and we have an incredible working relationship with them that goes back decades. Our graduate students can do their clinical training in OU’s specialty clinics. It just makes sense to continue that legacy and build something that has some permanency to it.”

The center’s five affiliate faculty are all from OSU and OUHSC. At OSU, Thad Leffingwell, head of the Department of Psychology, is joined by assistant psychology professors Misty Hawkins and Amanda Baraldi. The pair from OUHSC are Stephen Gillaspy, associate pediatrics professor, and Ted Wagener, assistant pediatrics professor and associate director of training at the Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center of the Stephenson Cancer Center.

The center’s advisory board includes six pediatric health experts from across the country: C. Eugene Walker, OUHSC professor emeritus; Bernard Feummeler, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center; Kevin Hommel and Ahna L.H. Pai with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; David Elkin, University of Mississippi Medical Center; and David Janicke, University of Florida.

In addition, the center will benefit from institutional and community partnerships with the following: Pediatric psychology faculty and pediatricians at OUHSC in Oklahoma City; J.D. McCarty Center for Children with Developmental Disabilities in Norman; University of Mississippi Medical Center; Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago; Weill Cornell Medicine; University of California, San Francisco Medical Center; Washington University Medical Center; Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; and Cook Children’s Medical Center of Fort Worth.

To learn more about the OSU Department of Psychology, visit psychology.okstate.edu.