Peter A. Wyman, PhD

Joined CPSTF: 2022

Dr. Peter A. Wyman is a professor, chief of academic affairs for the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and co-director of the Center for Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. His work focuses on prevention of suicide, depression, and substance use among adolescents and young adults. A key theme of Dr. Wyman’s research involves using natural social networks to strengthen social bonds and augment protective psychosocial processes and using influence among group members to sustain the impact of interventions. His work has been funded by the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Wyman has conducted extensive research related to suicide prevention and adolescent vaping. He led a clinical trial with 20,000 students from 40 secondary schools to evaluate an intervention that trained adolescent peer leaders in suicide prevention. With funding from the Department of Defense, he developed the Wingman-Connect Program aimed specifically at new recruits. This was the first prevention program shown to reduce suicide risk and prevention in a broad U.S. Air Force population. Dr. Wyman and his team also developed a program in which student opinion leaders were trained to conduct vaping prevention campaigns in middle schools. Previous to this, Dr. Wyman directed a 10-year study investigating resilience to life stress in children and families.

Dr. Wyman serves on the Suicide Prevention Council of New York State and co-chaired the New York State Governor’s Suicide Prevention Task Force from 2017 – 2019. He was a member of the U.S. Air Force Suicide Prevention Solutions Working Group (2017-2019) and an expert consultant to the task force preparing the 2012 U.S. National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. He has consulted on suicide prevention for federal and state agencies, military organizations and school districts in the United States and internationally.

Dr. Wyman is a graduate of Columbia University and received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in clinical psychology from the University of Rochester.