Dr. Carmen “Cruz” (she/her) is a Licensed Psychologist and Educator. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Prior to this appointment, for 26 years, she served in various positions at Texas Woman’s University Counseling and Psychological Services in Denton, Texas, including Training Director of the APA accredited doctoral internship program. She is a cultural and gender specialist who enjoys assisting individuals and organizations understand how to better work collectively. Her professional interests include teaching, clinical supervision, multicultural psychology, gender & sexuality, cultural/spiritual development, and the impact of stigma in seeking help.  Dr. Cruz completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology and Criminal Justice at Florida International University in Miami, Florida and received her doctoral degree from the Center for Psychological Studies at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Some highlights from her career include: She served as the first Latinx ACCTA (Association of Counseling Center Training Agencies) President (2017-2021). She also served on CCTC (Council of Chairs of Training Councils) and specifically contributed to the CCTC 2020: Social Responsiveness in Health Service Psychology Education and Training Toolkit. Over 25 University Counseling Centers have invited Dr. Cruz to do a full day multicultural supervision training with permanent site supervisors. In 2020, she received the Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship at the Columbia University Teacher’s College, 37th Annual Winter Roundtable. Her keynote was “A Supervisor’s Search for Meaning: Lessons Learned from a Relational Multicultural Approach to Mentorship,” which was subsequently published in TCP. She also co-authored a paper in the TCP Major Contribution “Sex Positivity in Counseling Psychology” edition, which won the APA Division 17 Annual Outstanding Paper Award.

On a personal note, she is a Cuban American woman from Miami who now lives in a super cool small music and college town in north Texas. She loves spending time with her wife, framily and especially her cool cat, Macho. She is also an activist in her community of Denton, Texas, where she has founded two LGBTQ+ organizations to improve the lives of Dentonite youth, individuals and families, in hope of creating a legacy community center.