Vaughan Stagg, Jefferson Davis Parish Obits, Louisiana 
Submitted by Kathy LaCombe-Tell
Source; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Posted Sept 2004

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Vaughan Stagg / Developer of behavioral health programs for children
Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Vaughan Stagg, longtime clinical director of the Matilda H. Theiss 
Child Development Center and originator of collaborative programs 
focused on improving behavioral health for children, died Saturday of 
pneumonia at UPMC Shadyside. He was 56 and lived in Friendship.

Dressed most often in one of his signature bow ties, Mr. Stagg was as 
common a sight in the Hill District and West Oakland as he was on the 
University of Pittsburgh campus, meeting with parents, children, 
researchers and clinicians to develop programs to overcome both the 
barriers and stigma often associated with mental health treatment.

To do that he had to balance his footwork with paperwork -- he was a 
prolific grant seeker. This year the Theiss Center's funding streams 
total more than $1 million and include state and federal monies in 
addition to foundation support from the Pew Charitable Trust/Robert 
Wood Johnson Health of the Public Program, Richard King Mellon 
Foundation, McCune Foundation and Scaife Family Trust.

"In terms of child development, in order to work with children in 
families where there were a number of risk factors, he focused on the 
children, but he understood you have to deal with the whole system," 
said M. Susan Burns, coordinator of the early childhood program at 
George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

"He was a person who liked to sow the seeds of new thoughts and deeds."

Among the programs he helped develop for infants, toddlers and 
preschoolers from lower-income areas in Pittsburgh were dental care, 
therapeutic nursery care for at-risk infants and a licensed preschool 
partial hospital program.

In 1997, Mr. Stagg brought together five community agencies' programs 
to establish a sequence of care for mothers in recovery and their 
children called the Partner's Continuum.

Central to that collaboration and to Mr. Stagg's work was the Theiss 
Center, of which he was named clinical director in 1988. One of the 
first of its kind in Pittsburgh when it was formed 35 years ago, the 
center provides inclusive mental health services in a day-care setting.

Part of the UPMC Health System and affiliated with Western Psychiatric 
Institute and Clinic, it serves about 70 children ranging in age from 6 
months to 6 years. It was accredited by the National Association for 
the Education of Young Children in 2002, a rigorous process by which 
early childhood programs demonstrate that they meet national standards 
of excellence. Only 7 percent of such programs nationwide qualify.

"He lived his beliefs and he practiced what he preached," said his 
sister, Alice Phillips, of Baton Rouge, La. "He always talked about the 
children. He always talked about the families."

The second of five children, Mr. Stagg was raised in Jennings, La. He 
gravitated toward psychology while earning his undergraduate degree at 
Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La. Between 1973 and 
1983, he earned a master's and a doctorate, the latter from George 
Peabody College, now part of Vanderbilt University.

He spent five years in Pittsburgh during the 1980s in various positions 
at Western Psych before returning in 1988 to take the job at the Theiss 
Center and as an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at 
the University of Pittsburgh.

In the community, he served as a board member of several groups, 
including the Persad Center, Families Facing the Future, Living at Home 
and Care Sharing.

In addition to his sister, he is survived by his mother, Rosemary, of 
Jennings, La.; another sister, Rosemary Sabatier, of Mandeville, La; 
and two brothers, Malcolm, of Dallas, and Stephen, of Jennings.

Friends will be received tomorrow at John A. Freyvogel Sons, 4900 
Centre Ave., beginning at 6:30 p.m. A memorial service will follow at 8 
p.m.

Contributions can be made to The Pittsburgh Foundation, One PPG Place, 
30th Floor, Pittsburgh 15222, to benefit the Persad Center and the 
Matilda H. Theiss Child Development Center.