Dedicated doctor, child advocate announces retirement from Spurwink

After over 25 years of evaluating and treating several thousand children for abuse concerns, Lawrence R. Ricci, MD, announces his retirement as child abuse pediatrician at the Spurwink Center for Safe and Healthy Families, effective July 31.

Ricci, who resides in South Portland, is a clinical professor of pediatrics at the Tufts Maine Medical Center College of Medicine and is a board certified child abuse pediatrician specializing in the evaluation and treatment of abused children at the Spurwink Center in Portland. He started the program in 1986, originally in Waterville.

Ricci has developed numerous child abuse workshops nationwide and in Maine for social workers, mental health professionals and legal and medical professionals. He has published approximately 25 articles and book chapters in the field of child abuse evaluation and treatment and has expertise in photo documentation and lectures. He recently published “What Happened in the Woodshed: The Secret Lives of Battered Children and a New Profession Protecting Them,” a book about the field of child abuse pediatrics and about his own clinical experiences in Maine over the past 30 years.

He is the recipient of numerous local and national awards, including Outstanding Service to Maltreated Children from the Section on Child Abuse of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Outstanding Contribution to the field of Child Abuse Pediatrics from the Ray Helfer Society.

“We are honored and privileged to have had the care and expertise that Dr. Ricci has offered to our community for so many years,” said Eric Meyer, president and CEO of Spurwink. “He has helped define this crucial program in Maine and has been a true advocate for children and families for decades.”

Co-leadership of the Spurwink Center for Safe and Healthy Families will transition to Amanda Brownell, MD, who joined the Center in 2018 as a child abuse pediatrician, and Joyce Wientzen, LCSW, who is the program director for the Spurwink Center for Safe and Healthy Families.

OUT Maine announces board appointments

OUT Maine welcomed three new members to its board of directors.

Will Ames of Portland last fall volunteered for the first OUT Maine weekend at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, which was an intensive art-and-craft-making retreat attended by over 60 LGBTQ+ youth from around the state.

Vanessa Shields-Haas, who lives in Rockland, is a forensic nurse examiner working with survivors of sexual assualt, domestic violence and child abuse in Waldo, Knox and Lincoln counties.

Cynthia Turcotte is a former high school teacher and a Gay/Straight/Trans Alliance adviser for 10 years. She has volunteered for many years at the Rainbow Ball, an OUT Maine annual weekend and safe prom that hosts 200 LGBTQ+ and allied youth.

OUT Maine works toward a welcoming and affirming Maine for all rural young people of diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions and gender identities. For more information, visit outmaine.org.

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