When Lenore Walker started studying psychology over 40 years ago, she never expected to be credited for discovering battered woman syndrome.
Walker is a professor at NSU’s Center for Psychological Studies and the coordinator of the clinical forensic psychology concentration.
Originally from the Bronx, New York, Walker grew up during the 1950s and 1960s when it was assumed that women would grow up to become teachers or nurses.
“It wasn’t expected that women were going to work and they were certainly not going to have a career, so I was going to become a school teacher,” said Walker.
Walker enrolled at Hunter College in Manhattan with the intent of becoming a school teacher. However, she soon learned that the school did not offer an education major, so she decided to study psychology.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, she decided to continue her education and enrolled at the City College of New York, where she received her master’s degree in education.
Walker then moved to New Jersey where she thought about becoming a school psychologist — a job that would allow her to blend education and psychology. But, at that time, a specialist or doctorate degree was required to become a school psychologist in New Jersey. So Walker decided to attend Rutgers University, where she received her doctorate in school psychology.
After her time as a school psychologist, Walker continued to work with children at the Rutgers University’s mental health center, where was asked to run psychology programs.
“I was designing innovative programs to really help these children do well in school. We also brought them to the clinic and did therapy. It was really exciting,” said Walker.
She also began to notice behavior patterns, which were linked to abuse in the home. After meeting with some of her clients’ mothers, she noticed that they displayed some of the same symptoms as the children and continued to investigate the patterns of abuse more closely.
Three years later, Walker moved to Denver, Colo. to work at Colorado Women’s College. While in Denver, she wrote a research grant, entitled “Battered Woman Syndrome”, for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
“I called it battered woman syndrome because, for children, it was called child abuse syndrome. I didn’t think twice about that. Turns out, I named a whole phenomenon,” said Walker.
After about a year, the grant was approved and Walker was funded $250,000 to continue her research. She was even recommended by Congresswoman Patricia Schroder to travel to London and learn about the research that was being done there.
In London, Walker met with members of parliament and saw firsthand how clinicians were putting theories of working with battered women into practice.
“Here I am, three years out of graduate school, going to England, I get picked up by someone from her magistrates service and was taken all over looking at the battered women’s shelters,” said Walker.
Once she returned to the U.S., Walker met with congress and debriefed legislators on all the information she learned in England. With the new information and the research grant, Walker set out to research the psychological effects of battered woman syndrome. Congress also started setting up battered women shelters across the country.
In 1982, after publishing the first edition of her book, “The Battered Woman”, Walker opened her own practice. By then, Walker was being called to testify in courts on behalf of battered women who had killed their abusive partners and were claiming self-defense.
“I was able to use my work on battered woman syndrome to testify, in my professional opinion, that they were abused, had battered woman syndrome and were in danger of being killed,” said Walker.
Walker also had a part in the O.J. Simpson case. She was hired by Johnny Cochran, Simpson’s defense attorney, to help understand the domestic violence in the case. Walker gave a deposition in the criminal case, but because psychological testimony was never placed in the criminal case, she did not testify.
In 1995, Walker moved to South Florida and worked for the public defender’s office in Broward County. She met Ray Ferrero, NSU’s fifth president and he offered her a position working alongside Dean Levant, the former dean of the center for psychology, to get students involved with the misdemeanor mental health court in Broward County.
Walker became a full-time professor in 1997. Since then, she has helped develop new programs, such as a new masters program in forensic psychology.
“We are growing and I think we are meeting the needs of the community. Our psychologists and Ph.D. students all get internships. One hundred percent of my students got internships this year,” said Walker.
Currently, Walker is working on a book about the best practices in criminal justice. She also teaches courses on forensic psychology and gender violence and supervises students in clinical training.
For students interested in the psychology field, Walker said that the best preparation is to become an avid reader and a people person.
“Reading is essential. The more you read, the more speed reading and comprehension increases. Also, psychology is really about getting people to learn about themselves. You have to know about yourself and also spending time with people and getting to know them,” said Walker.
