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)
- 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 1/1/2026

    Zimmer M, Zhan J, Gago C, Fung TT, Leung CW, Kenney EL. Prepandemic National Estimates of Toddler and Child Diet Quality by WIC Participation Status. JAMA Pediatr. 2026 Jan 01; 180(1):108-110. PMID: 41284278.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 12/5/2025

    Thomas O, Gago CM, Egan KA, Sheward R, Burt KG. Evolving food as medicine programs to advance health equity: insights from two decades of practice. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2026 Feb 01; 38(1):31-39. PMID: 41363194.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 11/26/2025

    Gago CM, Grafft N, Haines J, Davison KK. Increased Household Responsibility During COVID-19 Is Associated With Higher Current Parenting Responsibility Among Fathers, but Not Mothers. Fam Community Health. 2026 Jan-Mar 01; 49(1):48-54. PMID: 41299827.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 9/25/2025

    Gago CM, Lee MM, Hammad NM, Wynne JO, Poole MK, Zimmer M, Mozaffarian RS, Colchamiro R, May K, Rimm EB, Kenney EL. "I Didn't Have to Struggle": Caregivers' Perspectives on the Synergistic Interplay of WIC and SNAP on Family Health. Am J Public Health. 2025 Dec; 115(12):1982-1987. PMID: 40998425.

     Read At: PubMed
  • 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 Nov; 57(11):1101-1106. 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

View 14 more publications:View Full Profile at BUMC

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