Cindy Crusto, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Assistant Chair for Diversity in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, has been named a Fellow by the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA), Division 27 of the American Psychological Association.
According to its mission statement, SCRA is devoted to advancing theory, research, and social action. Its members are committed to promoting health and empowerment and to preventing problems in communities, groups, and individuals. SCRA serves many disciplines that focus on community research and action.
SCRA Fellows provide evidence of “unusual and outstanding contributions or performance in community research and/or action.” Fellows show evidence of:
- Sustained productivity in community research and/or action over a period of a minimum of five years;
- Distinctive contributions to knowledge and/or practice in community psychology that are recognized by others as excellent;
- Impact beyond the immediate setting in which the Fellow works
Crusto is Director, Program Evaluation and Child Trauma Research at The Consultation Center. Her contributions to community psychology include evaluation of community-based programs and systems of change, teaching and mentoring students, and advocacy and training. She has made extensive contributions to issues of equity and inclusion in evaluation research.
She is a leader in establishing participatory evaluation partnerships with community stakeholders. Her work seeks to enhance the capacity of programs, organizations, and service systems to build an organizational culture of evaluation and data-driven decision making. She has done this in different areas including domestic violence, prevention programs, early care and education systems seeking to reduce violence exposure among, and child and family behavioral health systems.
She is also a national leader in culturally competent evaluation. Her program of research stands at the intersection of childhood trauma health disparities and evaluation research. She has been widely-recognized for her significant contributions to multiethnic issues in evaluation research.