Ali Giusto

Ali Giusto is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Children and Families, Florida International University, specializing in culturally responsive mental health interventions for underserved global populations through community-engaged and implementation science approaches.

Her educational credentials include:

• B.A. in Psychology from Yale University
• M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Duke University
• Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Duke University
• Predoctoral Internship at Columbia University Medical Center (Child-track)
• NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center (Implementation Science & Global Mental Health)

Her research integrates community-driven methodologies to address youth mental health through four key pillars: (1) father mental health and family engagement interventions for peer-provider delivery; (2) effectiveness of lay/peer-delivered youth treatments; (3) co-designed community mental health programs; and (4) pragmatic implementation frameworks. Work spans U.S. and Kenyan contexts with emphasis on scalable, real-world solutions for marginalized communities.

Dr. Giusto's community-engaged implementation science model prioritizes pragmatic clinical tools developed through participatory methods, focusing on peer-provider capacity building and culturally adapted interventions for youth/family mental health in resource-limited settings worldwide.