Kate Guastaferro

Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Co-Director of the Center for the Advancement and Dissemination of Intervention Optimization

Director of the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Program

Professional overview

Kate Guastaferro, PhD is an intervention scientist by training, her work is devoted to the development, optimization, implementation and evaluation of effective, efficient, affordable and scalable interventions with high public health impact. She is an expert in the multiphase optimization (MOST) strategy and her expertise is in parent-focused, multicomponent behavioral interventions to prevent child maltreatment. Dr. Guastaferro co-led a statewide trial focused on the coordinated implementation of three evidence-base child sexual abuse prevention programs; included in this trial was the parent-focused child sexual abuse program that she developed, piloted and evaluated. Her current work is focused on the integration of intervention optimization into the prevention of child maltreatment.

Prior to joining NYU, Dr. Guastaferro was an assistant research professor in human development and family studies at the Pennsylvania State University, and an affiliate of its Prevention Research Center and Child Maltreatment Solutions Network. In 2020, she was awarded the Victoria S. Levin Award for Early Career Success in Young Children’s Mental Health Research from the Society for Research in Child Development. She has been published in Child Maltreatment, Translational Behavioral Medicine, and the American Journal of Public Health.

Dr. Guastaferro received her PhD and MPH from Georgia State University’s School of Public Health, and her BA in anthropology from Boston University. She also completed a year of postdoctoral training at the Pennsylvania State University.

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, Prevention and Methodology Training Program (T32 DA017629), The Pennsylvania State University

PhD Public Health, Georgia State University

MPH Health Promotion, Georgia State University

BA Anthropology, Boston University

Honors and awards

Victoria S. Levin Award, Society for Research on Child Development (2020)

NIH Loan Repayment Program Award: Toward the Optimization of Behavioral Interventions to Prevent Child Maltreatment (201820192020)

Public Health Achievement Award, Georgia State University (2016)

Scarlet Key Honor Society, Boston University (2008)

Publications

Publications

Intervention Optimization: Introduction to the MOST Mindset. 

Introduction to MOST: An Approach for Building more Effective and Implementable Behavioral Interventions. 

Knowledge gains from the implementation of a child sexual abuse prevention program and the future of school-based prevention education

Multiphase optimization strategy: How to build more effective, affordable, scalable and efficient social and behavioural oral health interventions

Guastaferro, K., & Strayhorn, J. C. (n.d.).

Publication year

2023

Journal title

Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology

Volume

51

Issue

1

Page(s)

103-107

10.1111/cdoe.12784

Abstract

Abstract

This commentary introduces the field of social behavioural oral health interventions to the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST). MOST is a principled framework for the development, optimization and evaluation of multicomponent interventions. Drawing from the fields of engineering, behavioural science, economics, decision science and public health, intervention optimization requires a strategic balance of effectiveness with affordability, scalability and efficiency. We argue that interventions developed using MOST are more likely to maximize the public health impact of social behavioural oral health interventions.

New York City Transit Workers: An Essential Workforce – Addressing Occupational Resilience through Intervention Optimization.

Operationalizing primary outcomes to achieve reach, effectiveness, and equity in multilevel interventions

Optimization of Implementation Strategies Using MOST: An Emphasis on the Factorial Design.

Optimizing for Dissemination of a Family Navigation Intervention to Improve Pediatric Mental Health Services using MOST.

Parenting and mental health needs of young, maltreated parents: Implications for prevention of intergenerational child maltreatment

Preventive education outreach on social media: The quest to enroll community members in a child sexual prevention workshop

Provider attitudes and self-efficacy when delivering a child sexual abuse prevention module: An exploratory study

Raising expectations for D&I science: Intervention optimization as an opportunity to move toward implementability and equitability.

Systematic braiding of Smoke-Free Home SafeCare to address child maltreatment risk and secondhand smoke exposure : findings from a pilot study

The Why and How of Intervention Optimization: Examples of Projects using the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST). 

Using implementation science to inform the preparation phase of the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) framework. 

Using the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment (EPIS) framework to adapt a sexual and reproductive health intervention for Latina teens and female caregivers. 

What is MOST and what does it offer to advance our understanding of techniques and mechanisms that mitigate against stigma? 

American single father homes: A growing public health priority

An (extremely) brief overview of MOST.

An early palliative care telehealth coaching intervention to enhance advanced cancer family caregivers’ decision support skills: The CASCADE pilot factorial trial

Building expert-consulted guidance for the selection of research designs for optimizing behavioral interventions.

How MOST can be used to advance implementation science objectives.

Human-centered design methods to achieve preparation phase goals in the multiphase optimization strategy framework

Making the #MOST of Implementation Science.

MOST Designs in Behavioral Research.