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

Optimizing educational interventions in crisis contexts through the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST).  

Parent-focused sexual abuse prevention: Results from a cluster randomized trial

School-based child sexual abuse prevention: Large-scale implementation of Safe Touches. 

Taking a school-based child sexual abuse prevention program to scale: A cost analysis

The development of effective and tailored digital behavior change interventions: An introduction to the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) 

The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST): Practicalities of an optimization study.

The preparation phase in the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST): A systematic review and introduction of a reporting checklist

The prevention of child maltreatment: Using SafeCare® to highlight successes and needs for improvement in prevention efforts

Virtual delivery of a school-based child sexual abuse prevention program: A pilot study

A hybrid evaluation-optimization trial of the itMatters intervention and a sexual violence component among college students. 

A hybrid evaluation-optimization trial to evaluate an intervention targeting the intersection of alcohol and sex in college students and simultaneously test an additional component aimed at preventing sexual violence

A vision for the prevention of child maltreatment: Optimization of multicomponent behavioral interventions

Applying the multiphase optimization strategy for the development of optimized interventions in palliative care

Help Wanted! Developing checklists to support the implementation of the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST).

Implementation considerations of recruiting and retaining first-year college students in online preventive intervention research.

Intersections between the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) and implementation science. 

Optimization methods and implementation science: An opportunity for behavioral and biobehavioral interventions

Parent and child reports of parenting behaviors: Agreement among a longitudinal study of drug court participants

Practicalities of MOST: How to effectively and efficiently conduct and optimization trial. 

Sexual sensation seeking, hookups, and alcohol consumption among first-year college students

The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) in child maltreatment prevention research

When home is not safe: Media coverage and issue salience of child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

A parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention module added to PAT: Results of a cluster randomized trial. 

An introduction to MOST: How to build more effective, efficient, economical, and scalable interventions.

Black first-year college students’ alcohol outcome expectancies