2011: Diane Heiskell Schetky ’57, Forensic Psychiatrist

Diane was a pioneer in the field of forensic psychiatry – which is the application of psychiatry in courts of law – and is the author or co-author of over 50 peer reviewed publications; one of the earliest books on child sexual abuse; and co-editor of four books on child and adolescent forensic psychiatry. She has lectured nation-wide and has held clinical academic appointments at the University of Oregon Health Services Center, the Yale Child Study Center, and the University of Vermont College of Medicine. At Maine Medical Center in Portland, Diane developed the first combined law-psychiatry seminar for medical and law students.
 
From 1986 until her retirement in 2007, Diane maintained a private practice and served as part-time psychiatrist for several correctional facilities. She has testified in hundreds of cases involving child abuse, custody, malpractice, and juvenile defendants including Lee Malvo - the boy in the DC sniper case, and the W. Paducah school shooter, Michael Carneal.
 
In her retirement, Diane remains active as a hospice volunteer and runs a bereavement group for prison inmates in Maine. She has used poetry in her bereavement work and to cope with her own losses and serious illness. Her book, Poems on Loss, Hope and Healing was published in 2009. She volunteers with the Restorative Justice Project, the Green Sanctuary committee at her church, the Board of Coastal Family Hospice Volunteers and Maine Interfaith Power and Light. She also finds time for travel, kayaking, cooking and singing. She has travelled to both poles, and has toured Siberia and the Far East with her community chorus.  Diane Heiskell Schetky is a poet, psychiatrist, photographer, teacher, volunteer, and pioneer.