Cristina Gago

Dr. Cristina Gago 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.