Cindy Millard Retires After 43 Years of Service to Shriners Children’s Portland

Shriners Children’s is a unique organization for many reasons. One of those reasons that is not as publicly well-known is that many long-term employees say they love this place and can’t imagine working anywhere else.

Among these employees is child life specialist Cindy Millard, who started with Shriners Children’s Portland in 1981 at the original 82nd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard location.

Cindy was inspired to explore child life as a career in 1982. “I met my first child life specialist and learned about various interventions and support services that could be offered to hospitalized children,” said Cindy.

Some of these services, such as medical play – allowing a child to put a syringe in a doll and understand what they would experience – were new ideas at that time, and somewhat controversial, but Cindy understood the value.

“I learned to swallow my nerves and become an advocate at a time when healthcare for children was still patriarchal and rules for patients were strict and typically structured by care providers,” she said.

One of Cindy’s colleagues, child life specialist Molly McCarthy, BA, CCLS, spoke more about Cindy’s advocacy.

“Cindy has ensured that the specialized skills and training of child life specialists are visible and present in the hospital,” Molly said, “including advocacy, trauma-informed care, child development education for the medical team and providing psychosocial care of children in the hospital setting.”

One of Cindy’s favorite parts of her job is helping patients and their families overcome fears. “I know how important ‘hands-on’ teaching and demonstration of medical procedures are in demystifying misconceptions and helping to reduce fears for children and their families, like showing the process of how an IV is inserted into a doll and what to expect,” Cindy said.

Cindy also enjoys helping empower children and their families to advocate for their personalized methods of coping, and collaborating with all members of the healthcare team to develop specialized care plans to achieve the best outcomes.