Diane Liebe, MD, FAAP currently serves as co-chair of the WCAAP’s early childhood committee and one of AAP’s early childhood champions and was previously a Chapter CATCH facilitator. “I value the opportunities to interact with and learn from a dynamic and committed group of pediatricians and WCAAP staff,” she says. “I love how everyone is constantly looking at how they can make Washington a better place for children and families.”
Dr. Liebe grew up in Brockport, NY, outside of Rochester, and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University before attending medical school at the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center at Syracuse. She completed her residency in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and now practices as a Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician and Medical Director at Children’s Village in Yakima.
“I had originally moved to Washington after residency to take a job as a general pediatrician at the Yakima Valley Farm Worker’s Clinic in Toppenish,” says Dr. Liebe. “I completed additional training in developmental pediatrics at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and ‘grandmothered’ into sitting for the DBPeds boards in 2004, which thankfully I passed.”
Dr. Liebe has been working as a DBPed only since 2003, caring for children with a variety of developmental and behavioral concerns. “Approximately 70% of my time is spent with children with autism and their families,” says Liebe. “I see many children who have non-English speaking parents, as we have a large immigrant Mexican-American population.” The community is also home to a large Medicaid population (approximately 70-80%). Liebe recently presented at the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP) national meeting on “The Impact of a Community Health Worker and Public Health Nurse on Developmental Behavioral Pediatric Care for Rural Hispanic Families.”
Liebe has extensive state-level program involvement, including serving as a provider representative for the State Interagency Coordinating Council (SICC), which is an advisory group for the Early Support for Infants and Toddler (ESIT) or Early Intervention. She has also been working with Within Reach and Essentials for Childhood to promote statewide implementation of a Help Me Grow program.
When not in clinic or at the nexus of early childhood change, Liebe can be found at her home in Granger, which she shares with her husband, a family physician, and their two sons, ages 18 and 21. “I love to treat the introverted side of my personality to time at our cabin outside of Mazama in the North Cascades,” says Liebe. The family enjoys spending time hiking, mountain biking, and cross-county skiing. Liebe adds that her guilty pleasure is baking, especially pies!