Jennifer Riedl Cross

Profile

Jennifer Riedl Cross, Ph.D. is the director of research at the William & Mary Center for Gifted Education. She teaches educational psychology and gifted development courses in the Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership department. Dr. Cross is the 2022-2025 Editor of Gifted Child Quarterly, the research journal of the National Association for Gifted Children. She is a former editor of the SENG Journal: Exploring the Psychology of Giftedness.  Dr. Cross is co-editor, with Tracy L. Cross, of the Handbook for Counselors Serving Students with Gifts and Talents, now in its second edition. She and Dr. Tracy L. Cross co-authored the book, Suicide among Gifted Children and Adolescents (2nd ed.), and numerous articles on the topic.

In addition to research on mental health aspects of giftedness, Dr. Cross’s studies in the field of gifted education emphasize its social aspects. Extending Coleman and Cross’s early work on the stigma of giftedness, she led a cross-cultural study of the social experience of gifted students, which stimulated the development of the Social Experience of Gifted Students Scale (SEGSS). Through the Center’s collaboration with the Centre for Talented Youth-Ireland, Dr. Cross has conducted numerous studies with Irish educators, parents, and gifted students.

In 2011, 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" and at “A Matter of Equity 2021 Summer Institute,” in support of gifted education in Detroit. 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 a class on personal development, which emphasizes the development of psychological resources.

Dr. Cross was the 2015-2017 Chair of the Conceptual Foundations Network of the National Association for Gifted Children and is a member of the Society for Research on Adolescence and the American Psychological Association.

Education

Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, Ball State University, 2008
M.A. in Cognitive and Social Processes, Ball State University, 2005
M.A. in Educational Psychology, Ball State University, 1997
B.S. in Business Administration, Tusculum College, 1986

Selected Publications

Cross, J. R., Mishra, A., O’Reilly, C., & Roy, P. (2022). Exploring goodness of fit: Social cognition among students with gifts and talents in Ireland and India. SENG Journal: Exploring the Psychology of Giftedness, 1(2), 44-57. https://doi.org/10.25774/KFQY-WC02

Frazier, D., Cross, J. R., Cross, T. L., & Kim, M. (2021). “The spirit is willing”:  A study of school climate, bullying, self-efficacy, and resilience in high-ability low-income youth. Roeper Review, 43(1), 7-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2020.1840465

Cross, T. L., & Cross, J. R. (Eds.). (2021). Handbook for Counselors Serving Students with Gifts and Talents, 2nd ed. Prufrock Academic Press.

Cross, J. R. (2021). Peer relationships. In T. L. Cross & J. R. Cross (Eds.) Handbook for Counselors Serving Students with Gifts and Talents, 2nd ed. (pp. 471-488). Prufrock Academic Press.

Cross, T. L., & Cross, J. R. (2021). An ecological model of suicidal behavior among students with gifts and talents. High Ability Studies. 32, 105-123. DOI: 10.1080/13598139.2020.1733391

Cross, T. L., & Cross, J. R. (2021). A school-based conception of giftedness: Clarifying roles and responsibilities in the development of talent in our public schools. In R. J. Sternberg & D. Ambrose (Eds.) Conceptions of Giftedness and Talent (pp. 83-98). Palgrave MacMillan.

Cross, T. L., Cross, J. R., Dudnytska, N., Kim, M., & Vaughn, C. T. (2020). A psychological autopsy of an intellectually gifted student with Attention Deficit Disorder. Roeper Review, 42(1), 6-24.

Cross, J. R., Vaughn, C. T., Mammadov, S., Cross, T. L., Kim, M., O’Reilly, C., Spielhagen, F., Pereira Da Costa, M., & Hymer, B. (2019). A cross-cultural study of the social experience of giftedness. Roeper Review, 41, 224-242.

Cross, J. R., Frazier, A. D., Kim, M., & Cross, T. L. (2018). A comparison of perceptions of barriers to academic success among high-ability students from high- and low-income groups: Exposing poverty of a different kind. Gifted Child Quarterly, 62, 111-129. 

Cross, T. L., & Cross, J. R. (2018). Suicide among gifted children and adolescents, 2nd ed. Prufrock Press.

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