Cynthia Crawford

Dr. Cynthia Crawford earned her bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and her master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Kentucky. After completing her doctorate, she served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where she studied the neurobiology of addiction. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the Neuropsychiatric Institute, where she studied the role of dopamine systems in neurodegenerative diseases. Cynthia joined the psychology department at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) in 1996 as an assistant professor and left in 2025 as a professor. She also served as Director of Research Development at CSUSB from 2018 to 2023 and was interim Associate Provost for Research in 2023.

Dr. Cynthia Crawford’s research concentrates on age-related variations in the body's response to psychotropic medications. Her studies encompass both illicit and prescribed substances. The objective is to enhance understanding of how immature and aging nervous systems react to drug exposure, with particular emphasis on the long-term effects of psychotropic drug use in developing organisms. Dr. Crawford also leads a research program investigating the neurobiology of addiction, frequently adopting a developmental perspective to elucidate why addiction often manifests during adolescence. Recently, her work has explored how nicotine use in adolescence alters the reinforcing properties of other addictive substances.