Cindy Crusto, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Deputy Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Department of Psychiatry, has been accepted as a Fellow in the 2021-2022 Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women.
“I have known about the ELAM program for several years and known a lot of women across YSM who are ELUMs (ELAM alumnae). I respect all of them tremendously both personally and professionally, so I was truly honored to be selected,” Crusto said.
The ELAM program is a year-long part-time fellowship for women faculty in schools of medicine, dentistry, public health and pharmacy. The program is dedicated to developing the professional and personal skills required to lead and manage in today's complex health care environment, with special attention to the unique challenges facing women in leadership positions.
Crusto’s potential Institutional Action Project (IAP) would focus on her diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) role in the department and/or the department’s anti-racism task force. She said the IAP will help her bring about systems change by ensuring the implementation of coordinated DEI and anti-racism and evaluation plans, and to develop sustainability and communications plans, as well as an annual reporting system and report to inform the community of the department’s progress toward goals and outcomes.
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.
As deputy chair for diversity equity and inclusion 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.
Crusto holds additional leadership positions within Yale related to diversity and inclusion, including co-chair of the Yale School of Medicine Minority Organization for Retention and Expansion (MORE), a faculty developed and run organization designed to accelerate the appointment and retention of underrepresented racial/ethnic minority faculty members and enhance their professional environment; executive committee member of the Yale School of Medicine Committee on the Status of Women in Medicine (SWIM), which addresses gender equality at the Yale School of Medicine; and deputy Title IX coordinator at Yale. Crusto is known for her work in community-engaged research, program evaluation and research, and intervention work in children’s exposure to psychological trauma and its impact on their health and well-being.