A MAESTRO OF RESEARCH

During his illustrious career as a clinician, researcher, and teacher, Professor Dennis C. Harper (MA ’66/PhD ’72) has opened doors for many people—in part, he says, because doors have been opened for him. He exudes a unique blend of expertise, confidence, and enthusiasm that encourages his clients, challenges his peers, and inspires his students. But Harper says he is simply doing what his own mentors did when he was a University of Iowa graduate student.

“I was going to be a hotdog researcher,” he recalls. “But then I met Professor J.B. Stroud, the giant innovator in educational psychology, and he changed my life and my career.”

Harper began his career by teaching reading to students in Pine School, an educational program established in 1957 for children with cognitive disabilities. In 1964, the pioneering school became part of the University Hospital School. Harper joined the University Hospital School and the Department of Pediatrics in 1972 as a fledgling researcher in educational and pediatric psychology. Thirty-one years later, University Hospital School has been renamed the Center for Disabilities and Development and as its clinical director and the director of the Department of Pediatrics Division of Developmental Disabilities, Harper carries on J.B. Stroud’s tradition of transforming theory into action to benefit others.

Harper says the Center is anything but “a sleepy place full of wheelchairs.” Indeed, it is an active, sometimes noisy, and highly productive medical and educational hub. Every month, an average of 500 children and their families arrive from around the Midwest to work with 225 staff members and 161 undergraduate and graduate students to better the lives of young people with various types of health-related disabilities.

As a professor of pediatrics and a professor of graduate studies in rehabilitation, Harper casts a wide net with his research, clinical practice, and teaching. He directs a weekly clinic, studies how children around the world view their peers who have disabilities, and explores the effects of age-related dementia in individuals who already have cognitive disabilities. His research also includes extensive cross-cultural disability studies in the developing world, including Nepal, Yucatan, New Zealand-Maori, and the Philippines. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in six divisions, and a leading national authority on pediatric rehabilitation.

Harper’s longtime colleague and collaborator, Glen Aylward is a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry and director of the Division of Developmental and Behavior Pediatrics at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. He says Harper brings theory to the applied level for the clinician, and his research on children with physical disabilities is an example of his uncommon ability to integrate the fields of psychology and medicine.

“Rather than only looking at a disability on a medical level as something to fix,” Aylward says, “Dennis examines the impact on the child’s self esteem, self confidence, and ability to interact with others. He is that rare person who looks at issues other researchers often ignore but that have major repercussions for the quality of life for disabled children.”

Aylward adds that Harper’s ability to see the big picture and encourage others enables him to accomplish much in a quiet, determined, and diplomatic way.

“He’s a maestro,” Aylward says, “someone who assembles and directs a talented orchestra by enabling each player to do his best.”

As a young researcher at Pine School, Harper became intrigued with the cultural and social impact of society on cognitive disabilities. Today Harper continues to study how societies around the world view individuals with disabilities, but he says it’s taken the rest of the country 30 years to gain the wisdom of his early mentors at the College of Education and the former University Hospital School.

“When I began my career,” Harper says, “there was tremendous prejudice toward people with disabilities and many were simply put away in institutions. Today, there’s still prejudice, but there’s a new wind blowing. We’re starting to recognize that people with disabilities have rich personalities and interesting lives and that not only can we assist them—we also can learn from them.” –by Jean Florman