Beth Alison Maloney began her legal career in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. Knowing the power of a true story and vowing that no child would suffer as her son had, she wrote the pivotal memoir Saving Sammy: Curing the Boy Who Caught OCD. The book reads like a novel, describing the battle it took to have her son properly diagnosed and treated for the simple strep infection that caused his “mental” illness. She wrote the book to change the face of mental illness for children. By empowering parents with information, she achieved her goal.

On the day the book was published, she appeared on The Today Show with her fully-recovered son, and the disorder catapulted from obscurity to national awareness. Saving Sammy received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, a “stand up and cheer” from Booklist, and was a finalist in Books for a Better Life. Ms. Maloney continued the empowerment with Childhood Interrupted: The Complete Guide to PANDAS and PANS. PANDAS/PANS is the acronym for the disorder that plagued Sammy: infection-triggered mental illness.

Her recent work created the relationships leading to on-going efforts at UCLA and the University of Arkansas to establish clinics for treating childhood postinfectious autoimmune disorders.

As an attorney, Ms. Maloney is nationally recognized for her expertise in “medical kidnapping” cases, a term commonly used to describe when the courts remove the custody of children from their parents due to medical disagreements between physicians and parents. In addition to writing and lawyering, Ms. Maloney consults nationwide in three areas concerning children with complex medical disorders: pursuing correct medical treatment, securing appropriate educational supports from public schools, and addressing custody issues when an illness is at the heart of the dispute either between parents or with the state.

Ms. Maloney has participated in scores of television appearances, articles, broadcast interviews, conferences, and speaking engagements in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In addition to The Today Show, appearances include The Doctors, Mystery Diagnosis, W5 (Canada), Fox News LA, AM Northwest, Glenn Beck, Bonnie Hunt, Good Morning LA, Fox Q13 Seattle, 207, GMA Health, and KMOX (CBS). She has been featured in multiple articles in print and online. In 2015, she was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of “5 Things to Know About PANS.”  Live interviews include NPR stations, Sirius XM’s Doctor Radio, talk radio, and internet and podcast programs. Her presentations before conferences include UCIrvine, International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation, Autism One, NE PANS/PANDAS Conference, PANDAS Ireland, and PANDAS Canada.  Ms. Maloney has brought key stories to the media, including the exposé about the collaboration between Boston Children’s Hospital and the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families to have the state take custody of children over medical disagreements. The story was featured on the front page of The Boston Globe and was covered by The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, ABC News, and Fox News. The circumstances served as the backdrop for a 2016 UC Davis Law Review article and a 2015 New York Times op-ed piece. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/the-new-child-abuse-panic.html