Her e-mail address begins "Drarson," indicating Dian Williams is not like most nurses.

Williams, PhD, RN, LNC, DF-IAFN, professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at West Chester University, West Chester, PA, and president and CEO of The Center for Arson Research, Philadelphia, actually wanted to be an FBI agent. As a senior in high school she wrote a letter to J. Edgar Hoover, then FBI director. "Hoover responded and I was so excited," Williams said. "I wish I had kept the letter but it said something like: 'My dear young lady: The work of FBI agents is much too dangerous for girls. But if you want to come to Washington, I will personally ensure you can be a secretary here.'"

Change of Plans

Shocked at this discrimination, the response "left me with no plans for my future," Williams remembers. At the urging of classmates who were going into nursing, she decided she'd join them and graduated from Harrisburg Polyclinic Hospital School of Nursing in Harrisburg, PA.

Her first job, and the only specialty she would ever work in, was as a psychiatric nurse. That's where she developed her interest in arsonists and fire-starting behaviors.

It evolved serendipitously, said Williams, who has never stopped advancing her education. "During my career, I trained to work with violent sex offenders and I knew I would be asking a lot of highly sexual questions. I didn't feel comfortable with that because I was so young at the time," she recalled. "So rather than focusing on the sexual aberrance, I decided to start with a comprehensive assessment, taking an early childhood history."

During these assessments she discovered many of these sex offenders showed fire-setting behaviors as children, for which they had never been arrested, Williams said. "I checked the literature and it didn't reflect what these people were saying."

Williams began making enquiries of professionals about this.

Formalizing the Process

That grew into more research and then into the Center for Arson Research in 1985, which now has evaluators in multiple locations across the country. Center evaluators interview people adjudicated by the courts, and referrals from parole or probation departments, children's agencies, adoption centers, attorneys, etc. They use a questionnaire developed by Williams that has been modified 4 times in the past 20 years.

"The center is one of a very few in the U.S. that does this type of research," Williams said. "Our goals are to interview and assess fire setters, fire bombers and domestic terrorists; conduct research in fire setting patterns in children and adults and understand the motivations behind it to offer strategies for intervention and to lecture across the U.S. and abroad."

For example, Williams was the keynoter at an international arson conference in London last month. She spoke the first 2 days and was the only woman to present at the event.

The Work Goes On

While the center has several functions, Williams made it clear it does not conduct crime scene investigations. "The only time I view arson photos or scenes is if I'm sitting on a panel or preparing for witness testimony, especially in the case of arson homicide," Williams stressed. "We're not criminalists."

However, the nature of the work of the center is such that Williams said all the evaluators, including her, can't work exclusively on center research. "It's essential to have an outlet because our work is emotionally difficult. Some of the people we meet can be frightening. At times you say to yourself you don't want to do this anymore, especially when you interview children who have lived such horrible lives. But then you realize, if I don't do this, who will?

"My teaching at West Chester University is my salvation. I love it. My students are the way I relax. Although I tell them when I walk into a room anywhere else, I am applauded and they've never done that for me."

Williams manages to maintain a sense of humor through her stressful research. When asked her title at the center she quipped "Empress, but I can't seem to get anyone to call me that."

- Gail O. Guterl