Dr. Jennifer West

Dr. West is co-director of the University of Rochester Firearm Injury Prevention Program. The mission of this program is to significantly reduce the incidence of injury and death due to firearms (assaults/homicides, suicide, unintentional injury/death) in the Rochester region through prevention, intervention, education, and research informed by and in partnership with community members. Dr. West's research is focused on using innovative educational methodology, particularly simulation (standardized patients), to train providers and other interventionists. She was a co-PI on a randomized controlled trial focused on the use of simulation (standardized patients) for suicide prevention training for providers in primary care. In 2020, Dr. West developed a project focused on improving behavioral healthcare providers' knowledge and skills in firearm injury prevention and presented the findings at the National Research Conference on Firearm Injury Prevention. 

Dr. West is an educational leader in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center and the Director of Clinical Psychology Training (doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship programs) Shehas been the director of the Child and Adolescent Doctoral Internship Track since 2007. Dr. West has received awards for Excellence in Teaching and for Psychotherapy Education in the Department of Psychiatry. In 2017 she received the Genesee Valley Psychological Association Outstanding Psychologist Award. Dr. West has been a presenter at several meetings of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers and has led many initiatives in the psychology training program focused on DEIJ. Dr. West also teaches in the behavioral health seminar in the Pediatric Dentistry Residency program at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health.