Cristina Gago
Profiles

Cristina Gago, PhD

Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences - Boston University School of Public Health

(617) 358-1342
gago@bu.edu
Crosstown Center
View Full Profile at BUMC

Biography

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.

Methods strengths:
- Semi-structured interviews and focus groups analyzed via deductive, inductive, or hybrid thematic analysis
- Multilevel (mixed) models (for clustered samples and longitudinal analyses in SAS 9.4)
- Mixed- and multi-method designs (e.g., convergent, sequential exploratory, and sequential explanatory)
- Intervention (program) evaluation
- Implementation science frameworks (selection & application)

Primary content areas:
- Health promotion in early care and education settings
- Federal nutrition programs (e.g., equitable enrollment, retention, and benefit redemption)
- Parenting and child health promotion interventions

Education

  • Harvard University, PhD Field of Study: Population/Family Health Science
  • University of Southern California, MPH
  • University of Southern California, BS

Websites

Publications

  • Published on 8/23/2025

    Macias E, Gago C, Vu J, Figueroa R. Leveraging Head Start and WIC to Address Food Insecurity in Immigrant Mixed-Status Families: A Perspective Paper. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2025 Aug 23. PMID: 40849833.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 3/18/2025

    Gago CM, Aftosmes-Tobio A, Grafft N, Davison KK. "It Should Be a Priority": Lessons Learned by Head Start Leaders, Staff, and Parent Facilitators Delivering a Multi-Site Parent-Centered Child Obesity Prevention Intervention. Nutrients. 2025 Mar 18; 17(6). PMID: 40292486.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 12/11/2024

    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. 2025 Apr; 27(2):268-276. PMID: 39663287.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 8/15/2024

    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.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 5/2/2024

    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.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 5/1/2024

    Wang ML, Gago CM. Shifts in Child Health Behaviors and Obesity After COVID-19. JAMA Pediatr. 2024 May 01; 178(5):427-428. PMID: 38436952.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 4/26/2024

    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.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 4/24/2024

    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.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 4/24/2024

    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.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 4/16/2024

    Wang ML, Gago CM, Rodriguez K. Digital Redlining-The Invisible Structural Determinant of Health. JAMA. 2024 Apr 16; 331(15):1267-1268. PMID: 38497952.

     Read At: PubMed

View 10 more publications:View Full Profile at BUMC

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