ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Tracy L. Cross, Ph.D., holds an endowed chair as the Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education and is the executive director of the Center for Gifted Education and Institute for Research on the Suicide of Gifted Students at William & Mary. Previously he served Ball State University as the George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Gifted Studies, the executive director of the Center for Gifted Studies and Talent Development, and the Institute for Research on the Psychology of Gifted Students. For 9 years he served as the executive director of the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, a residential high school for intellectually gifted adolescents. He has published more than 150 articles and book chapters and 45 columns, has made approximately 250 presentations at conferences, and has published 10 books. He has edited seven journals, including many in the field of gifted studies (Gifted Child Quarterly, Roeper Review, Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, Research Briefs). He is the current editor of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted. He received the Distinguished Service Award from The Association for the Gifted (TAG) and the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), the Early Leader and Early Scholar Awards from NAGC, the Distinguished Scholar Award from NAGC, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the MENSA Education and Research Foundation. He served as a Fulbright Scholar in Dublin, Ireland, collaborating with Dr. Colm O’Reilly, Director of the Irish Centre for Talented Youth at Dublin City University. He is serving in his second stint as the President of The Association for the Gifted of the Council for Exceptional Children, and is President Emeritus of the National Association for Gifted Children.

He lives in Williamsburg, VA, with his wife, Dr. Jennifer Riedl Cross and their French Bulldog, Stu.

Jennifer Riedl Cross, Ph.D., is the Director of Research at the William & Mary Center for Gifted Education, where she writes grants and coordinates and conducts research. She teaches educational psychology and research methods courses for the W&M School of Education. Dr. Cross holds a doctorate in educational psychology with a specialty in cognitive and social processes from Ball State University. She is the coeditor, with Tracy L. Cross, of the Handbook for Counselors Serving Students With Gifts and Talents. Dr. Cross is a member of the leadership team of the newly created W&M Institute for Research on the Suicide of Gifted Students. She and Dr. Tracy L. Cross coauthored a chapter on suicide for the American Psychological Association Handbook of Giftedness and Talent and an article on clinical and mental health issues for a special issue of the Journal for Counseling and Development on gifted individuals.

With a strong interest in social justice, Dr. Cross guest edited, with Dr. James Borland, a special issue of the Roeper Review on the topic of gifted education and social inequality. She was an invited keynote speaker at the Roeper Institute’s 2016 “A Matter of Equity Symposium” about gifted education in Detroit. She is coeditor, with Drs. Tracy L. Cross and Laurence J. Coleman, of the two-volume compendium Critical Readings on Diversity and Gifted Students. Dr. Cross is active with Camp Launch, the Center’s residential summer camp for low-income, high-ability middle school students, where she conducts research and created the Personal Development class, which emphasizes the development of psychological resources.

As a social psychologist, Dr. Cross has studied peer relationships, with a particular focus on adolescent crowds. This interest came about through her research on the development of a social dominance orientation, an individual’s preference for hierarchical or egalitarian intergroup relations. Her research in the field of gifted education emphasizes its social aspects, from individuals coping with the stigma of giftedness to attitudes toward giftedness and gifted education. She is a member of the Society for Research on Adolescence and the American Psychological Association.