Lisa Butterworth, RN, BSN, MSC, CPNP
It’s with a grateful but reluctant heart that we say farewell to Lisa Butterworth as she steps into retirement. Lisa is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner who has served Dell Children’s Medical Center for 25 years, including almost 20 years working alongside the Center for Child Protection as part of the Child Protection Team.
It’s with a grateful but reluctant heart that we say farewell to Lisa Butterworth as she steps into retirement. Lisa is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner who has served Dell Children’s Medical Center for 25 years, including almost 20 years working alongside the Center for Child Protection as part of the Child Protection Team.
Although she was with Dell Children’s for 25 years, Lisa has dedicated her entire 37-year career to pediatrics. With Dell Children’s, she ran a wide range of roles: caring for children, supervising staff, implementing programs, and managing multiple pediatric clinics across the city. She was also tasked with starting the early version of what would become the Dell CARE (Child Abuse Resource and Education) Team, coordinating multidisciplinary staffings that focused on evaluating and providing comprehensive care for children hospitalized with injuries related to maltreatment.
By running this new program, Lisa was formally introduced to the Center for Child Protection and the Child Protection Team (CPT). She quickly fell in love with the collaborative process, inspired by how agency partners worked together to protect and support children throughout child abuse investigations.
“You cannot protect a child by yourself,” Lisa reminded us.
“It takes a whole team working together.”
Eventually, with official state funding, Lisa was able to develop the CARE Team as we now know it.
Once the team was fully established, she transitioned into the role of the CARE Team’s nurse practitioner. As a SANE-certified (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) pediatric nurse practitioner, Lisa helped assess, diagnose, and treat children and adolescents impacted by maltreatment under the supervision of a child abuse pediatrician.
From physical exams and lab work to follow-up care, the CARE Team provides full-spectrum medical care to children. As part of the Child Protection Team, their expertise also supports agency partners during investigations, helping determine whether injuries are the result of abuse and, when needed, testifying in court as expert witnesses.
During exams, the team is also often able to reassure children that their bodies are healthy and normal despite what they may have experienced. Providing that peace of mind is just as important as medical examinations. Lisa has always valued the opportunity to provide trauma-informed care, hoping each child leaves feeling safer and better supported — both physically and emotionally.
In the beginning, Lisa supported the Center at its original location, a small house in East Austin. When the Center later opened its main location on FM 969, an entire medical wing was developed to support the creation of the official CARE Team and provide an on-site option for non-acute exams. What began as a new, quiet building full of empty offices has grown into a bustling, multi-building, multi-agency campus offering a wide range of client programs. The Center’s child-friendly, trauma-informed environment helps protect children from additional trauma, and Lisa even helped design themes for the exam rooms to make them more welcoming for young patients.
“It has been amazing to watch the Center grow,” Lisa said. “I remember meeting Mike, Cyndi, and Amanda, back at the old building. We’ve been at this together for a while, and what the Center has built is phenomenal.”
Throughout her career, Lisa also helped grow the CARE Team itself. What started with one manager, one nurse practitioner, one social worker, and one part-time physician has expanded into a robust team that now includes two full-time pediatricians, two full-time nurse practitioners, two full-time social workers, a manager, and a coordinator.
Lisa has left her mark not only on Dell Children’s Medical Center, the Center for Child Protection, and the Child Protection Team, but also on the lives of countless children and families she has supported throughout her 25-year career.
“I have loved every day walking into Dell Children’s,” Lisa shared. “I’ve especially loved working with all the Child Protection Team partners and coming together to keep kids safe.”
In retirement, Lisa looks forward to spending more time with her family, gardening, and doing a little traveling.
