Wendi F. Cross, Ph.D.

Professional Background

Dr. Cross is a member of the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and in Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is a clinical psychologist, the Director of Clinical Psychology Training, an Education Specialist /Researcher at the VA's VISN 2 (Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, Canandaigua, NY), and an investigator in the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide. Dr. Cross directs Psychiatry’s Implementation, Dissemination, Evaluation and Analysis (IDEA) Core and co-directs the Laboratory for Behavioral Health Skills, an innovative state-of-the-art education resource. She is also faculty in the UR Health Lab where she collaborates on development and evaluation of technology-based behavioral health interventions and directs the Education Core. Dr. Cross completed an NIMH Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) which focused on developing and testing models, methods and measures for training individuals charged with carrying forth a variety of evidence-based interventions into community settings. She is also a graduate of the NIMH-supported Implementation Research Institute (2011-2013 fellow) and her implementation science work crosscuts numerous interventions and practices. She is PI on several grants, has published widely and collaborates with investigators nationally and internationally on a variety of projects focused on training and transfer of training including: the impact of variations in implementer training on crisis lines for suicide prevention, development and evaluation of suicide prevention training for domestic violence crisis line workers, assessing impact of the Veteran's Crisis Line, fidelity measurement for Common Sense Parenting, the Rochester Resilience Project, Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia, and group-based HIV prevention interventions. Dr. Cross is a member of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Awardee (RWJCS; 2018-2021) as part of a team that focuses on building a “digital web” to meet the behavioral health needs of rural communities.

In addition to her research and scholarly work, Dr. Cross is the Director of Clinical Psychology Training and core teaching faculty in the Department. She has received numerous awards for her teaching and mentorship. Dr. Cross also has a small practice that focuses primarily on children with Selective Mutism.