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

Braiding two evidenced-based models: Parents as Teachers and SafeCare®

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Evidence-Based Programs and Child Maltreatment: How can we get the “most juice for the squeeze”?

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Improving family functioning of adult drug court clients.

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Improving outcomes for adult drug court clients and their children. 

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Meeting the needs of families at high-risk for child maltreatment: The braiding of two evidence-based curricula. 

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Meeting the Needs of High Risk Families: A systematic approach to braiding of two evidence-based parenting programs to best meet the needs of high-risk parents and highlight interim results of a current randomized controlled trial.

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Mobile Phones and the Prevention of Child Maltreatment: Innovation & Implications. 

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More work needed to protect children but promising trend data on exposure to violence

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Mothers with Intellectual Disability: Experiences and Implications for Service Delivery.

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Reaching Families in an Adult Felony-Level Drug Court.

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The Effect of Parent-Infant Interaction Training on Maternal Utterances: Language Environment Analysis Opportunities and Implications

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The Evaluation and Dissemination of Parents as Teachers (PAT) + SafeCare® to Improve Outcomes for High-Risk Families. 

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We're lucky for Temple Grandin's brain

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Braiding Two Evidence-Based Parenting Programs: Research Design and Implementation 

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Creating sustainable partnerships to meet the needs of high-risk families. 

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Developmental Milestone Identification as a Child Maltreatment Prevention Technique for Teen Mothers. 

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Enhancing parent-infant interactions with high-risk parents

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SafeCare®: From development to innovative sustainability strategies.

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Teaching young mothers to identify developmental milestones

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Using digital picture frame technology as an enhancement to the parent-infant interaction module of SafeCare®.

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SafeCare®: Historical perspective and dynamic development of an evidence-based scaled-up model for the prevention of child maltreatment

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A quasi-experimental study of a universal parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention program

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Acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of the Floreciendo sexual and reproductive health intervention: Mixed-methods findings from a pilot optimization trial

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Adding a parent-focused child sexual abuse prevention module to home visiting: A provider cohort study protocol

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Addressing Pediatric Behavioral and Mental Health Concerns using Community Health Workers in a Primary Care Clinic: An Analysis of Goals and Progression toward Completion

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