Wanda Cummings
Family Peer Training and Implementation Coordinator
Wanda Cummings is the Family Peer Training and Implementation Coordinator at the UPMC Youth and Family Training Institute (YFTI), where she has served since August 2020. She facilitates FDT courses/consultations. Wanda is also credentialed to train the Family Roadmap training, FREDLA Family Peer and Family Peer Supervisor training and provides coaching to family peers across Pennsylvania.
She works closely with state and county partners, stakeholders, and providers to support training and implementation needs, and offers ongoing coaching to family peers and supervisors throughout the state.
Wanda has more than twenty‑five years of experience in behavioral health and addictions treatment, including leadership roles as a therapist, clinical manager, and director of behavioral health services at several major Philadelphia hospitals. She led the integration of peer support into inpatient behavioral health care and oversaw the development and support of the hospital’s certified peer specialist workforce for more than a decade.
She co‑created a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program for individuals with serious mental illness on long‑term inpatient units and later presented this work with Dr. Aaron Beck’s team at the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Wanda played a key role in developing and implementing the Functional Analytic Structured Systemic Treatment (FASST) program, a co‑occurring disorders recovery model for inpatient with serious mental illness.
As both a provider and family support, Wanda has contributed family voice in statewide initiatives and legislative hearings. She continues to educate providers on the value of family engagement and help families learn to navigate Pennsylvania’s behavioral health systems.
Wanda holds a B.A. in Addictions/Human Services from Alvernia University and an MSW from Widener University.
In her spare time, she enjoys watching documentaries and spending time with her toddler grandson, whom she adores, along with her three beloved dogs Marley, Carter, and Griffin.