Dr. Cristina Gago is a health disparities researcher committed to supporting healthful nutrition and closing nutrition disparities among low-income families with young children through equity-centered policy and system interventions. As an Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences and a Fellow with the Evans Center for Implementation and Improvement Sciences, she applies implementation science principles and behavior change theory to the evaluation of community health, food assistance, and social service interventions, such as those offered by the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Head Start (a federally funded early childhood education program for families with low income). Through her partnership-grounded, translational research practice, Cristina aims to identify actionable opportunities to increase health and social service accessibility and uptake, by improving the quality of intervention implementation.
Before joining the Boston University School of Public Health, Cristina trained as a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone's Institute for Excellence in Health Equity, where her research centered around the evaluation of health behavior change programming in the context of a large, Brooklyn-based federally qualified health center. Previously, Cristina earned her PhD at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, where her doctoral work examined key facilitators and barriers caregivers enrolled in Head Start and WIC face in eating healthfully and accessing health promotion resources for young children.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility
I acknowledge that my social positionality, privileges, and biases profoundly shape my perspectives, experiences, and approaches to health equity research. Therefore, I must actively work every day to interrogate and challenge the assumptions I hold, as a means of ensuring that my research is ethical, equitable, and sensitive. In the work I do, I am committed to centering the voices and experiences of marginalized communities, through collaborative and inclusive community-based research approaches. By producing research in equal partnership with community members, leaders, and advocates, I aim to ensure that every research question addresses community-relevant concerns and that, from the subsequent findings, we derive actionable recommendations for positive change.
Further, as a teacher, I recognize that it is my job to urgently and continuously support students in achieving their academic and professional goals in public health by prioritizing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) and working to co-create a learning environment where everyone can thrive. With this goal in mind, I have volunteered time with several initiatives.
• For two of my undergraduate years, I volunteered as a Mini-Course Instructor for the University of Southern California’s Joint Education Project, which is one of the oldest and largest service-learning programs in the United States. In this role, I created weekly one-hour nutrition education lessons for local elementary and middle schools in Los Angeles. My goal in working with these young students was to get them excited about the science, help them make connections between in-classroom learning and daily life, and push them recognize their own academic potential.
• As a postdoctoral fellow, I introduced young aspiring scientists to opportunities in research, as a volunteer with the Letters to a Pre-Scientist Program. Every month, I exchanged snail mail letters with a seventh-grade pen pal. We shared reflections on our paths so far, discussed challenges we’ve faced and how we’ve surmounted them, and shared future dreams and directions. My hope that is these letters may have helped demystify STEM education and career paths, spark curiosity about future careers in STEM, and broaden student awareness of who can become a STEM professional. As a postdoctoral fellow, I also served as a speaker for the NYU Grossman School of Medicine Science & Technology Entry Program (STEP), aimed at promoting and providing access, opportunity, and representation to science education in New York City. During our time together, I shared my research journey with a group of about 40 high school students, and listened carefully as students generously shared their own hopes, dreams, and reactions with me.
• As a junior faculty member, I joined the Designing Antiracism Curricula Fellowship Program to improve my approach to teaching maternal and child health at BUSPH. I also joined the School's DEIJ Committee, representing Community Health Sciences.
Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other
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Park IY, Gago C, Grafft N, Lo BK, Davison KK. Parent empowerment as a buffer between perceived stress and parenting self-efficacy in immigrant parents. J Immigr Minor Health. 2024 Dec 11. PMID: 39663287
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Grafft N, Gago C, Garcia E, Aftosmes-Tobio A, Jurkowski JM, Blaine RE, Davison KK. Parent Experiences of Empowerment: Understanding the Role of Parent Empowerment in Child Health Promotion. Fam Community Health. 2024 Oct-Dec 01; 47(4):261-274. PMID: 39158172; PMCID: PMC11335312; DOI: 10.1097/FCH.0000000000000412;
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Gago C, De Leon E, Mandal S, de la Calle F, Garcia M, Colella D, Dapkins I, Schoenthaler A. "Hypertension is such a difficult disease to manage": federally qualified health center staff- and leadership-perceived readiness to implement a technology-facilitated team-based hypertension model. Implement Sci Commun. 2024 May 02; 5(1):49. PMID: 38698497; PMCID: PMC11067286; DOI: 10.1186/s43058-024-00587-8;
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Wang ML, Gago CM. Shifts in Child Health Behaviors and Obesity After COVID-19. JAMA Pediatr. 2024 May 01; 178(5):427-428.View Related Profiles. PMID: 38436952
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Grafft N, Gago C, Young Park I, Bauer KW, Haneuse S, Haines J, Davison KK. Coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination among young children: Associations with fathers' and mothers' influenza vaccination status. Prev Med Rep. 2024 Jun; 42:102746. PMID: 38707247; PMCID: PMC11067473; DOI: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102746;
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Schoenthaler A, Colella D, De La Calle F, Bueno G, Nay J, Garcia M, Shahin G, Gago C, Dapkins I. Key Principles Underlying a Research-Practice Alignment in a Federally Qualified Health Center. Ethn Dis. 2023 Dec; DECIPHeR(Spec Issue):6-11. PMID: 38846732; PMCID: PMC11099517; DOI: 10.18865/ed.DECIPHeR.6;
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Gago C, O'Neill HJ, Tamez M, López-Cepero A, Rodríguez-Orengo JF, Mattei J. Self-Rated Health and Medically Diagnosed Chronic Disease Association among Adults in Puerto Rico. Ethn Dis. 2023 Sep; 33(4):140-149. PMID: 38854413; PMCID: PMC11155621; DOI: 10.18865/ed.33.4.140;
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Mattei J, Caballero-González A, Maafs-Rodríguez A, Zhang A, O'Neill HJ, Gago C. Lessons learned by adapting and implementing LUCHA: a deep-structure culturally tailored healthy eating randomized pilot intervention for ethnic-diverse Latinos. Front Public Health. 2023; 11:1269390. PMID: 38445250; PMCID: PMC10912621; DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1269390;
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Gago C, Aftosmes-Tobio A, Beckerman-Hsu JP, Oddleifson C, Garcia EA, Lansburg K, Figueroa R, Yu X, Kitos N, Torrico M, Leonard J, Jurkowski JK, Mattei J, Kenney EL, Haneuse S, Davison KK. Evaluation of a cluster-randomized controlled trial: Communities for Healthy Living, family-centered obesity prevention program for Head Start parents and children. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2023 Jan 11; 20(1):4. PMID: 36631869; PMCID: PMC9832428; DOI: 10.1186/s12966-022-01400-2;
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Gago C, Colchamiro R, May K, Rimm EB, Kenney EL. Caregivers' Perceived Impact of WIC's Temporary Cash-Value Benefit (CVB) Increases on Fruit and Vegetable Purchasing, Consumption, and Access in Massachusetts. Nutrients. 2022 Nov 22; 14(23). PMID: 36500976; PMCID: PMC9739164; DOI: 10.3390/nu14234947;
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Grafft N, Aftosmes-Tobio A, Gago C, Lansburg K, Beckerman-Hsu J, Trefry B, Kumanyika S, Davison K. Adaptation and implementation outcomes of a parenting program for low-income, ethnically diverse families delivered virtually versus in-person. Transl Behav Med. 2022 Nov 21; 12(11):1065-1075. PMID: 36318233; PMCID: PMC9677462; DOI: 10.1093/tbm/ibac077;
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Vercammen K, Grummon AH, Zatz LY, Gago CM, Blocksidge M, Hua SV, Bleich SN, Stone S, Kenney E, Colchamiro R, Rimm EB. A Descriptive Analysis of Redemption Patterns by Vendor Type Among: WIC Participants in Massachusetts. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2023 Apr; 123(4):626-636.e2. PMID: 36372729; PMCID: PMC10187795; DOI: 10.1016/j.jand.2022.09.011;
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Gago CM, Wynne JO, Moore MJ, Cantu-Aldana A, Vercammen K, Zatz LY, May K, Andrade T, Mendoza T, Stone SL, Mattei J, Davison KK, Rimm EB, Colchamiro R, Kenney EL. Caregiver Perspectives on Underutilization of WIC: A Qualitative Study. Pediatrics. 2022 Feb 01; 149(2). PMID: 35039867; PMCID: PMC8934047; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2021-053889;
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Gago CM, Jurkowski J, Beckerman-Hsu JP, Aftosmes-Tobio A, Figueroa R, Oddleifson C, Mattei J, Kenney EL, Haneuse S, Davison KK. Exploring a theory of change: Are increases in parental empowerment associated with healthier weight-related parenting practices? Soc Sci Med. 2022 Mar; 296:114761. PMID: 35123371; PMCID: PMC8894077; DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114761;
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Gago CM, Lopez-Cepero A, O'Neill J, Tamez M, Tucker K, Orengo JFR, Mattei J. Association of a Single-Item Self-Rated Diet Construct With Diet Quality Measured With the Alternate Healthy Eating Index. Front Nutr. 2021; 8:646694. PMID: 34026807; PMCID: PMC8131508; DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2021.646694;
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Beckerman-Hsu JP, Gago C, Aftosmes-Tobio A, Jurkowski JM, Lansburg K, Leonard J, Torrico M, Haneuse S, Subramanian SV, Kenney EL, Davison KK. Acceptability and appropriateness of a novel parent-staff co-leadership model for childhood obesity prevention in Head Start: a qualitative interview study. BMC Public Health. 2021 Jan 22; 21(1):201. PMID: 33482774; PMCID: PMC7825243; DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-10159-3;
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Figueroa R, Gago CM, Beckerman-Hsu J, Aftosmes-Tobio A, Yu X, Davison KK, Jurkowski JJ. Development and Validation of a Parental Health-Related Empowerment Scale with Low Income Parents. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Nov 20; 17(22). PMID: 33233860; PMCID: PMC7699877; DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17228645;
This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown,
or last author.
| Year | Publications |
|---|
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2 |
| 2022 | 5 |
| 2023 | 1 |
| 2024 | 9 |