(Written by a current colleague and faculty member at OUHSC, Dr. Dolores Subia
BigFoot, Ph.D., who is an American Indian child psychologist, and faculty member at the
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center… Dr. Diane J Willis mentored her
during her training, and she has gone on to make many contributions to mental health
for American Indian children and families… This is what she wrote about Dr. Willis…)
Dr. Dolores Subia BigFoot wrote: Diane J. Willis, PhD., has been a mentor, teacher,
advisor, counselor, guide, and friend to me. She developed a post-doctoral fellowship
for me at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in the Child Study Center
that allow me to gain a foundation in treatment of child maltreatment, policy
development, community programming, and service delivery with diverse communities.
Dr. Willis has been providing direct clinical services to the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribal
communities for over 30 years and in the post-doctoral position allow me the opportunity
to accompany her as she worked with the Cheyenne and Arapaho children and their
families. She has always maintained a constant and deep level of concern for
underserved American Indian children across the nation. Whether it is at a Head Start
program on the Hopi Reservation, running for president of APA, facilitating a national
meeting on child maltreatment, or gathering clothes for a family, Dr. Willis is always
seeking to present the best and making certain that diversity is a guiding principle. She
single handedly has initiated major conferences on American Indian children’s mental
health, persistently advocated for policy change to improve clinical services, and initiated
several publications addressing the needs of American Indian children. In all of those
activities she has gently but unrelentingly included me as co-therapist, co-committee
member, co-policy maker, or co-author. I am but one ethnic minority student who has
benefited from her mentoring and continued to contribute to the field of psychology by
following in her academic footsteps. She is a scholar and a researcher. She has
mentored many students; in her role as mentor, she has shaped the professional
development of all her students in a very positive manner while teaching and practicing
tolerance and acceptance. Dr. Willis has used her professional influence to maintain
attention on the need of all children, including children of color with a special emphasis
on American Indian children. She says with pride, "I am an enrolled member of the
Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma" which has a bit of bias to it but this is allowed when one is
standing for all children equally.
Dolores Subia Bigfoot, Ph.D.
(Caddo Nation of Oklahoma)
Director, Indian Country Child Trauma Center
Project Making Medicine
Center on Child Abuse and Neglect
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
940 N.E. 13th Street, 3B3406
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73104
Phone: (405) 271-8858
dee-bigfoot@ouhsc.edu
