Tyra M. Reid, MD
Retired Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician
Former Assistant Professor, UAMS College of Medicine
Department of Pediatrics, Section of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and Rehabilitative Medicine, Little Rock, Arkansas
Tyra M. “Ty” Reid, MD appreciated twenty-six years as a developmental behavioral pediatrician with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Section of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics & Rehabilitative Medicine. Her career was one of teaching and providing counsel to children, their caregivers, and the villages within which these families lived. Along the way there were initiatives, informatics projects, and research contributions, but her passion was always clinical attending. Dr. Reid worked at the JL Dennis Developmental Center with multidisciplinary diagnostic teams, realizing early on a particular affinity for autism spectrum disorders. Reflective of that, she was a member of the Arkansas state legislature’s Task Force on Autism. Dr. Reid was medical director for the Arkansas Project for Adolescent and Child Evaluation (PACE) Foster Care Program, a collaboration with the state Department of Child and Family Services, helping guide team evaluations for that population of vulnerable children. Her work also embraced medical student, resident, and fellow education, and she was an invited lecturer for various entities around the state over the years. Dr. Reid was privileged to be a panelist for a 2017 Schwartz Rounds at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, addressing the topic “Being LGBTQ in the Workplace;” and a panelist for a 2018 Arkansas Human Rights Campaign “Equal Care for Equal Lives LGBTQ Healthcare Summit,” offering perspective as an LGBTQ parent. After retirement in 2018, Ty the bass player/songwriter set to increasing relationships with her first love, playing music, until the pandemic hit. Hope for resumption of that quest increases with vaccine progress. Of her non-work existence, she says this: “I am blessed, with a mate who gets me, and progeny who embrace me, and friends who share music with me. I am possessed of dogs. I write for fun. I cook. I tinker. I try to abide.”