Dr. Betsy Murray, M.D. , SPYS Board Member, Knows About Resilient Children

Dr. Katherine (Betsy) Murray, M.D., chose to join the St. Paul Youth Services Board of Directors in August 2009 because she saw “an organization that is thinking about alternative explanations for why children do what they do”.  Dr. Murray is a development/behavior specialist in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota  which means she knows the relationship between brain development, from the neurologic perspective, and what we see as human behavior. As a practicing physician, Dr. Murray sees many children in the medical clinic because of some problems with brain development that can lead to difficult behaviors due to such problems as anxiety, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and depression. In her work, she can use her medical knowledge to help her patients and their families understand these behaviors and often how to change them.    She also is interested in how behaviors that we repeat many times can lead to changes in how our brains work.

She observes in her clinic practice how youth with difficult behaviors have profound childhood resiliency to overcome their burdens. Similarly, she observes how St. Paul Youth Services programs for youth at risk brings out the same resiliency in the 1000 youth with whom the staff works.  She also sees the same focus on parent education in St. Paul Youth Services programs that she adheres to in her work with clinic patients.

Dr. Murray’s professional interests intersect with St. Paul Youth Services because both are deeply concerned about the way the juvenile justice system does not often enough take youth brain development into  consideration when determining consequences for offenses.  As a Board of Directors member, Dr. Murray observes repeatedly how staff, as she said, ‘think outside the box’  and reach large numbers in the community;  for example, 2580 people in Ramsey County in 2010 benefited from St. Paul Youth Services community outreach in one of two ways:

• Educational trainings by agency staff  on the dynamics of survival-based youth and positively engaging with them;

• Movies followed by discussion groups on the racial inequities in both the schools and legal system affecting African American males.

Dr. Murray enjoys the opportunity to use her time on the St. Paul Board of Directors to expand her view of the world as a medical doctor treating a single child patient and his/her family in the clinic every day.  In this volunteer role, she contributes both insight and advocacy of the agency’s programs to help youth with challenging behaviors. She sees how, with the right help, many of them move beyond these deep challenges to a happy secure present and a hopeful, enriching future.