Lee McKenzie,
RN, MSN, MA
Co-Founder, Family Rhythms
"We
have gyms and personal trainers who can help build your abs
and endurance, but where are the personal trainers for parenting?
We created Family Rhythms to help parents learn to build their
parenting "muscles," says Lee McKenzie, co-founder
of Family Rhythms with her husband Dr.
Michael D. McKenzie, MD.
Lee doesn't make statements
like this lightly or without reason. Based on her knowledge
and experience, she could probably compete in a "Parenting
Skills Olympics" — and win.
Professionally, Lee's career
mirrors her passion for helping families build a better life
for themselves. She completed her undergraduate (1973), Pediatric
Nurse Practitioner (1974), and graduate (1976) nursing programs
at the University of Alabama in Birmingham School of Nursing.
After working in a range of clinical settings, she was invited
to join the faculty at the University of Alabama in Birmingham
teaching pediatric nurse practitioner students.
In the late 70s, as a Pediatric
Nurse Practitioner, she created a private practice caring for
newborn babies born at home in Atlanta, Georgia. This was a
disenfranchised group that shied away from traditional healthcare,
and Lee developed a mechanism for bridging the gap in care for
these families. She recalls the reason for starting this unique
practice, “It didn’t seem right to me that no one
was reaching out to these parents just because they demanded
a completely different birth experience. Professionals need
to be more open to ideas that we don’t always agree with
or understand. ”
After several years of practicing
and teaching nursing, the renowned Dr. T. Berry Brazelton invited
her to become a Fellow in the Child Development Unit at Boston
Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School from 1984
to 1986. Of note, Lee was the first nurse ever admitted to this
clinical and research fellowship-training program. During her
Fellowship with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, Lee created and ran
the National Seminar Roadshow Series, a traveling workshop program
where she, her husband, and other Fellows traveled across the
country giving seminars and workshops with Dr. Brazelton. In
addition to her work at the Child Development Unit, she was
also one of a small group of clinicians accepted into the fellowship
training program sponsored by the National Center for Clinical
Infant Programs (now known as “Zero to Three”) in
Washington, DC from 1984-1985.
“What an amazing experience
it was to work with Berry Brazelton,” Lee recalls. “He
taught all of us so much about how to see babies and young children
in a different way. Children are so amazing and have so much
more to offer than most people realize. My work at the Child
Development Unit definitely taught me to be a better guide to
parents as they engage in the job of parenting.”
Immediately following her
work with Dr. Brazelton, she entered Clark University in Worcester,
Massachusetts, where she earned an MA in Developmental Psychology
in 1990. While at Clark University, Lee studied the impact of
gender on reading styles and developed a unique theory of parent-child
discipline.
Lee has been involved in
several research projects over the years, including studies
entitled, “Obesity and Infant Feeding Behavior,”
“Prenatal Attitudes on Infant Nutrition and Feeding,”
and “High-Risk Parenting: Mental Health Service Intervention”
(1983-1986) with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton as Principal Investigator.
She's also conducted studies with her husband, Dr.
Michael McKenzie, MD. Together, they interviewed
high school students in a study entitled “Adolescents’
Conceptions of Discipline: Encounters with their Parents and
Teachers” (1991). In 1992, she addressed the International
Conference of Socio-Cultural Research in Madrid, Spain: “Parental
Values, Beliefs and Conceptions: Providing a Foundation for
Parental Disciplining Activities.”
She has divided her professional
career between clinical practice, teaching, and work in quality
management. She has held faculty positions at the University
of Alabama in Birmingham; Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia;
the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada;
and Boston University. Throughout her teaching career, she has
passed on her wealth of knowledge about children and families
while emphasizing the joy that work with families can bring.
Her commitment to families
is evident in the community service work she has done over the
last 30 years. From coordinating health assessments for children
in Alabama's Head Start summer program in the 70s to running
seminars in British Columbia for foster parents regarding communicating
with young children to supporting new moms in "Mother-to-Mother"
groups in Massachusetts and Vermont, the crux of Lee's lifelong
work is creating a more satisfying family life for moms, dads,
and children.
Lee acknowledges that this
goal isn’t always an easy one to attain. "It requires
heavy lifting," she says, while explaining that family
harmony doesn't happen over night and that it requires physical,
mental, and emotional work.
Today, she focuses her work
solely on Family Rhythms, where she helps moms, dads, and kids
foster harmony in family life through family coaching programs,
parenting workshops, and long-term parenting classes.
Lee and Michael have been
married since 1983 and make their home in Sherborn, Massachusetts,
where they share the joys of parenting three children.
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