Dr. Rose Hartzell-Cushanick has been the sex therapist at San Diego Sexual Medicine since 2010, where she addresses the sexuality, relationship, and intimacy concerns of individuals and couples. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFC 53079) and an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and Sex Educator Supervisor. She is also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and uses it to help patients heal from sexual trauma that may be affecting their relationships and intimate lives.

Dr. Hartzell-Cushanick earned her PhD in health behavior with minors in counseling and human sexuality, along with an EdS in mental health counseling and an MS in health promotion, all from Indiana University-Bloomington. She holds a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During her graduate training she conducted sexuality research with the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction and the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention, and was awarded the Emerging Professional Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in 2007.

She has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on sexual health and has presented at more than 50 national and international meetings. Her recent work includes contributions to the 2021 ISSWSH Consensus on Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder and the 2023 publication on lumbar endoscopic spine surgery for PGAD in The Journal of Sexual Medicine. She is a lecturer at San Diego State University and has previously taught at Indiana University-Bloomington, the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, and National University.
Dr. Hartzell-Cushanick served as Scientific Program Chair of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health from 2018 to 2020, Scientific Program Co-Chair for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality national conferences in 2013 and 2014, and Chair of the AASECT Sex Educator Certification Committee from 2019 to 2021. She serves on the Board of ISSWSH and on the Board of the Patty Brisben Foundation, and is a reviewer for The Journal of Sexual Medicine. She is a member of the International Society for Sexual Medicine, the Sexual Medicine Society of North America, the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

From 2010 to 2014 she served as the monthly sex expert for FOX5 News in San Diego, and she has been featured on CW6 in San Diego and quoted in The New York Times, Women's Health, and Huffington Post.