Faculty Highlight
by Niceiry Marizan, Summer Communications Intern
Brian Allen, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Director of Mental Health Services, Center for the Protection of Children at Penn State
The Child Maltreatment Solutions Network has various faculty from a diverse background of departments at Penn State. We are excited in this newsletter issue to highlight one of those people that bring meaningful work to the table. Brian Allen has been an Associate Professor in Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine as well as part of the Network for nine years. His interest in working with kids began early with a desire to be a teacher. “I grew up in the middle of nowhere, a small little town nobody’s ever heard of, and being a teacher was the only professional career I knew where you could work with children, other than being a doctor,” he said. During his undergraduate years he had a mentor who encouraged him to do an internship at a residential treatment facility. He said this experience made him aware of how many kids have histories of abuse and neglect, which sparked his interest in looking for solutions to child maltreatment.
When reminiscing on his childhood, Allen mentioned not having one specific role model. Rather, he said he learned his lessons from various people that occupied different roles in his life. His main examples were his parents and several coaches who taught him the value of seeing results. “You put in all the effort and if you fail then there's still no end product, you still failed, and nothing improved. That means you need to get better and not just throw your hands up and say, ‘I tried’,” Allen said. “If your best wasn’t good enough, you have to get better.”
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