In this career-review-as-memoir, I interweave the deeply personal/familial roots of my abiding interests in developmental psychopathology, clinical trials, and reduction of mental illness stigma and discrimination with an overview of my variegated research on youth and young adults. I also discuss mentoring, teaching, lab-building, leadership, collaboration, synthesis, and serendipitous ideas. Lived experience and personal interest can and should inform discovery phases of scientific efforts, whereas objectivity and disinterest are essential for justification aspects. My long-term aim has been to bridge science and humanization. Although progress in clinical psychology is apparent, even passing recognition of current mental health challenges—especially for adolescents/young adults—provides an urgent call for (a) integration of genetic/biological risk with contextual and cultural factors; (b) provision of supportive settings, plus evidence-based treatments, for individuals and families in need; and (c) recruiting and mentoring new generations of scholar–clinicians who will continue these essential efforts.