Cindy Crusto, PhD, has always been interested in children’s health and well-being. As a high schooler in New Orleans, she worked at her mother’s Montessori early care and education center and ran afterschool programs, but when she took her first psychology class as a senior, “I was just hooked,” she said.

Her psychology teacher also led groups for children of divorced parents, and watching her teacher play multiple roles within her school community intrigued Crusto. She was a participant in that group for children of divorced parents and remembers feeling comforted because she was not the only one with this experience. Later, participation in the group helped her understand the powerful role that schools could play in children’s social and emotional well being.

When she realized there was a field dedicated to helping people overcome adversity, she decided she wanted to become a psychologist.

“I think we’re all the product of a cumulation of risks and protective factors. I’ve had my share of both in my life, and I’ve always been interested in how we can prevent or mitigate the impact of some of those negative life experiences,” she said.

Over the years, Crusto supplemented her interest in psychology with studies in political science, sociology, history, and Africana studies to build a career in community and clinical psychology.

Now, after spending the last 22 years at Yale, Crusto was recently American woman in the history of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine to reach that rank.

“There were many people who came before me who worked just as hard or harder than me, and so I have complex feelings about my accomplishment,” she said. “I know I worked extraordinarily hard to develop and carry out my career plan, and I am immensely proud. I was fortunate to have had mentorship, sponsorship, and advocacy, but at the same time, I have to remember we’re in this system that does not provide that for everyone, especially women and racial and ethnic minorities. I do feel an immense responsibility, and I’m thinking of what I can do daily to help someone else get to this point.”

Crusto arrived at Yale in 1999 as part of the Doctoral Internship in Clinical & Community Psychology within the Psychology section of the Department of Psychiatry. She came with a desire to learn more about and enhance her skills and experience with addressing the societal problems and challenges facing children and families, specifically children and families of color and communities of color. She was also interested in addressing issues of socioeconomic status. She said it was a challenge to build a career in academic medicine while wanting to conduct community engaged work.

“Today, community engaged work is the thing to do, everyone is doing it, but it was an anomaly when I was coming up,” she said. “It was really hard early on to build a career here doing that, and it’s still hard because people don’t fully understand what it is or the challenges of doing the work. It doesn’t always fit with the culture of academic medicine.”

Crusto addresses culture, context, and human diversity in clinical work and community-engaged research and program evaluation. She has held leadership roles in the American Evaluation Association, including chairing a task force that developed practice guidelines for addressing culture and context in the profession and in the provision of evaluation services to the public and to evaluation consumers.

I know I worked extraordinarily hard to develop and carry out my career plan, and I am immensely proud. I was fortunate to have had mentorship, sponsorship, and advocacy, but at the same time, I have to remember we’re in this system that does not provide that for everyone, especially women and racial and ethnic minorities. I do feel an immense responsibility, and I’m thinking of what I can do daily to help someone else get to this point.

Cindy Crusto, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Deputy Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

As Deputy Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the Department of Psychiatry, Crusto is responsible for diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives, including co-chair of the department’s Diversity Committee and Anti-Racism Task Force, curriculum development, and management of identity-based harmful behavior.