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

Cultural and familial influences on parents’ child sexual abuse-related awareness and protective behaviors

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Grandparents raising grandchildren: Exploring perceptions of social support

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Grandparents raising grandchildren: Impact of grandparents’ chronic stress on grandparent-parent relationship and life satisfaction

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Grandparents raising grandchildren: Understanding the experience and needs of an emerging public health priority population

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Health-related social needs and assistance among primary care patients: Implications for HIV prevention

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Household Family Type in Child Protective Services: Single Dads Need Attention, Too

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Implementation strategies to increase Malawian health care workers’ knowledge about and self-efficacy to recommend HPV vaccination: A pilot study

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Implementing a county-wide child sexual abuse prevention effort: Lessons learned from a state-government initiated prevention trial

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Integrating assessment of food security into child maltreatment research: A pilot of the acceptability and feasibility of the FIES in a parent sample

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Mandated Reporting in New York State: A Policy Note

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Measuring parents’ knowledge and skills in the prevention of child sexual abuse: A review of the evidence

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Multiphase Optimization using Cluster-randomized designs: An introduction and case study for implementation scientists

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Optimization of Smoking Cessation Interventions via Multiphase Optimization STrategy (MOST): Basic Concepts, Practical Considerations and New Developments

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Optimizing a school-based therapeutic play intervention for preschool students: A factorial experiment protocol

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Poor nurturing care as a risk factor for homelessness: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

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The nature of conceptual models in studies seeking to optimize multiple implementation strategies

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When a school-based child sexual abuse prevention goes awry, you Pivot!

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Yoga MAT (Medication for Addition Treatment): A study using the Multiphase Optimization Strategy framework to develop a multicomponent yoga intervention for people with chronic pain taking opioid agonist therapy

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