Pediatrics

January 31, 2025

Janet Cross retiring from Vanderbilt after four decades of attending to children’s psychological, emotional and developmental needs

Cross spent her entire career dedicated to helping lay the foundation locally and nationally to solidify child life specialists as part of the health care team.

Janet Cross, MEd, CCLS, CPXP, right, with Med Rush, MD, at a recent event celebrating Cross’ career. (photo by Susan Urmy) Janet Cross, MEd, CCLS, CPXP, right, with Meg Rush, MD, at a recent event celebrating Cross’ career. (photo by Susan Urmy)

When Janet Cross, MEd, CCLS, CPXP, began her internship at Vanderbilt in 1981, child life specialists were sometimes referred to as “the play ladies.”

At the time, little, if any, published evidence existed to validate that engaging children in play and expressive activities helped create a positive health care experience and lessened emotional stress for children in a hospital. The field also didn’t yet have an official certification exam.  

Child life was a burgeoning field in health care, though still in its infancy, when Cross was officially hired as a child life specialist in 1982. She was one of two child life specialists on a team that had four people, including a woman who played music for patients. Cross saw the positive impact the team had on children and families at Vanderbilt, when pediatric health care was delivered across three floors at Vanderbilt University Hospital. She knew then, and even more so now, that they were more than “the play ladies.” Child life helped support children and families through illness, injury and trauma to create a positive hospital experience. Cross would become instrumental in shaping the field into what it is today.

“I think we have moved eons past that, and there is much evidence now to show that if we attend to children’s psychological, emotional and developmental needs, that they’re going to heal more quickly and have less PTSD and emotional harm,” Cross said.

Cross spent her entire career dedicated to helping lay the foundation locally and nationally to solidify child life specialists as part of the health care team. After nearly 43 years at Vanderbilt and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Cross is retiring from her role as senior director of Patient- and Family-Centered Care. Her last day is Feb. 3. Her successor is Anna Ahrens, MA, CCLS, who comes to Monroe Carell with more than 25 years in pediatric health care working to improve the patient and family experience.

While Cross always had an affinity to working with children, her initial career track was accounting at Mississippi State University. “I quickly figured out that was not the right thing, so I changed to education,” she said.

During a child development class, her professor, who was also her advisor, spoke about an emerging field called child life. After college, Cross did her internship at Vanderbilt. When that finished, a job wasn’t yet available, so she moved back home to Tullahoma, Tennessee, and worked as a nursing assistant at Harton Hospital, while also pursuing a nursing degree.

Then the child life specialist position opened at Vanderbilt, and she took it immediately. While in her role, she earned her Master of Education in 1986 from Vanderbilt University. Over the next decade the team grew incrementally, becoming a team of six, while also expanding the size and scope of programming. In 1992, she was named the director of Child Life Services and the Family Resource Center (FRC).

Continuing to build on the program, she worked to overcome the naysayers who didn’t yet understand the value of a child life specialist. “It was all about making sure people would see it to believe it. So, if a child was going to surgery or anticipating a procedure, you tried really hard to work with the team to make sure you were there to help the child cope in a positive way,” Cross said.

Child life also looked at more than the patient, wrapping services around the entire family, parents, siblings and beyond. As a national leader, Cross sat on the committee for the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) that helped create and launch the first-ever validated child life professional certification exam, which was administered in 1998. Over the years, Cross has served in multiple leadership roles for ACLP including President, Child Life Certifying Committee Chair, Ethics Committee, Governance Task Force, Patient Experience Committee, among others.

As Cross’s job and duties expanded beyond Child Life and the FRC, she was named Monroe Carell’s senior director of Patient- and Family- Centered Care (PFCC) to encompass the entirety of her work to ensure the hospital prioritizes families as active partners in their child’s medical care, involves them in decision-making, and provides care that considers the needs of both the patient and the family unit.

Expanding the scope of work along the way, Cross implemented the first accredited Hospital School Program in 1995 and the Music Therapy Program in 2006. She led the addition of Seacrest Studios at Monroe Carell in 2016, the Facility Dog Program in 2020, and the Gaming and Technology Program in 2024. She was instrumental in the addition of Get-Well Network for patients and families and recently worked to develop the Monroe Carell Interfaith Council and Monroe Carell Patient Experience Governance Council. Today, the Child Life Program, which falls under PFCC, has 50 team members.

She has also overseen the Monroe Carell Family Advisory Council since 2010 and has built that program to 35 family advisers while also supporting the development of four smaller focused clinical advisory groups. While there are many things she’s proud of, one that rises to the top is the growth of the Family Advisory Councils.

“It’s all about recruiting, orienting and coaching families to be able to constructively participate and provide feedback about improving the hospital experience,” she said. “The families have done just a beautiful job in doing that, recognizing their perspectives are important. They see evidence of their work when they walk into the hospital.”

When asked about her contributions to child life and patient- and family-centered care, Cross said: “I feel like I’ve been successful because I’ve surrounded myself with people that work hard and are committed to the best care for children and families. When you surround yourself with good people, you do good work.”

She has earned several accolades along the way. She was named the Volunteer Supervisor of the Year at VUMC in 1994. She was awarded the 2012 Distinguished Service Award from the Child Life Council, the highest honor presented by the ACLP Board. She was the recipient of the 2011 Judy Koonce Family-Centered Care Award and was named a finalist as a “Woman of Influence” by the Nashville Business Journal in 2012. She received the Patriotic Employer Award in 2022. 

In retirement, she will spend time with her family, including her husband, Kim, who will also retire in February; their three adult children, Lacey, Katie and Andrew, and their spouses; and two grandchildren, Ronan, 5, and Margot, 3. She will also continue her lifelong passion of enjoying time on the lake (little known fact: She’s an 11-time waterskiing champion in Tennessee) and plans to garden (a lot).