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Dissemination and Implementation Affinity Network

What we do

The Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Affinity Network supports ASU researchers and partners in community-engaged research to accelerate the translation of science into practice.

The network's primary activities are focused on capacity building in the College of Health Solutions and across ASU through:

  • An annual dissemination and implementation training program, recently expanded as part of the Mountain States Partnership for Community Engaged Dissemination and Implementation Science (MS-CEDI) Training Institute, focused on the development of community-engaged, equity-oriented implementation science grant proposals.
  • A monthly seminar series to discuss contemporary topics in implementation science of interest to our affinity network and MS-CEDI trainees.
  • Consultation on grants and other projects to support the implementation of science-focused efforts of faculty, students and community partners.

Engagement

Our network is diverse with 100+ member representatives including faculty, staff, students and community partners across major universities and health care organizations in Arizona and the mountain region. Our 10-member, interdisciplinary D&I AN leadership team develops innovative and collaborative methods to deliver our affinity network’s primary activities. We have expertise across all areas of implementation science, with a special emphasis on community engagement and health equity. 

 

Team leads

Cady Berkel

Cady Berkel

Cady Berkel is an associate professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. She is also affiliated faculty with ASU's REACH Institute. She received her bachelor's degree from George Washington University and doctorate from the University of Georgia. Dr. Berkel's program of research focuses on reducing health disparities, including substance use, mental health, HIV and other STIs, and obesity, through research on the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based programs. She studies the implementation of evidence-based programs in community settings, including health care, school and court systems. Her work evaluates implementation mechanisms that promote positive outcomes for programs delivered in community settings, through behavioral observations and machine learning. She also conducts basic research on risk and resilience mechanisms associated with health disparities.

Team Co-Lead
Associate Professor, ASU College of Health Solutions
[email protected]

Mathew Buman

Matthew Buman

Dr. Buman is a behavioral scientist focused on improving health behaviors across the 24 hours - sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity - and understanding how changes in these behaviors improve health outcomes for individuals and populations. His work leverages personal technologies such as smartphones and wearables. He is Associate Dean of Research & Professor in the School of Technology for Public Health and Professor in the College of Health Solutions.

Team Co-Lead
Associate Dean of Research and Professor
[email protected] 

 

Claire Reynolds

Claire Reynolds

Project Coordinator
[email protected] 


Student involvement

Students are welcome to participate in the D&I AN and may participate in activities related to data collection, analysis and dissemination of findings. They can also support training activities, such as the development of the MS-CEDI course shell, which allows them to access Training Institute content.

Three ASU post-doctoral fellows have participated in the development and implementation of the MS-CEDI summer training program.

In addition, two ASU courses are supported by D&I AN leadership:

PSY 598 POP 611

Community partners

The dissemination and implementation-focused grants of our trainees and leaders include the following community partners:

  • 20 Arizona fire departments
  • Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing
  • Creighton Community Foundation
  • Terros Health Mercy Care
  • Advance Community
  • Unlimited Potential Valley of the Sun YMCA
  • Phoenix Area Indian Health Service
  • A variety of Arizona public schools
Modern ASU building with glass windows and palm trees at the Downtown Phoenix campus.

Where we work

College of Health Solutions

500 N 3rd St
Phoenix AZ 85004

Current projects

MS-CEDI was born, in part, from the ASU College of Health Solutions D&I AN. MS-CEDI is a collaboration between D&I scientists at 7 institutions: Arizona State University, The University of Utah, Mayo Clinic Phoenix, The University of Arizona, The University of New Mexico, Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, and PIRE-Southwest. The training institute is focused on capacity building in D&I science. MS-CEDI trainees participate in a one-week in-person intensive workshop in the major components of D&I science.

The intensive week is followed by nine months of mentored proposal development with a focus on community-engagement and health equity. The training is designed to support a D&I science grant proposal submission to the NIH or other relevant funders at the end of the training period. For more information on the MS-CEDI annual training, please contact Al Haddad at [email protected]

2025-2026 MS-CEDI Training Program further information and application

MS-CEDI - Training Program

The Dissemination and Implementation sponsors a monthly seminar series, in collaboration with MS-CEDI, to discuss contemporary topics in Implementation Science of interest to our Affinity Network and MS-CEDI trainees.

Past Seminars

April 2025 – Sarah Lindstrom Johnson
March 2025 – Niko Verdecias Pellum
February 2025 – Gloria Coronado
    
November 2024 – James Merle
October 2024 – Stephanie Carpenter
September 2024 – JD Smith
April 2024 – Rinad Beidas
March 2024 – Group Presentation
February 2024 – Ross Brownson
    
October 2023 – Wynne Norton
April 2023 – Olutobi Sanuade
February 2023 – Karey O’Hara
January 2023 – JD Smith

November 2022 – Prajakta Adsul
October 2022 – Matt Buman & Sabrina Oesterle
September 2022 – Wynne Norton    
May 2022 – Jessica Austin
April 2022 – Marisa Domino
 

Consultation services are available for faculty, students, and community partners. Consultations are provided in individual or group formats with a D&I AN Leadership member(s) to discuss D&I methods and their use in your grants or other projects. Please contact Patti Serrano [email protected] to arrange a consultation with the D&I AN.

Past projects

This hybrid-effectiveness implementation (type 1) project (R01HL162799) will test whether an evidence-based sleep health coaching program, informed by cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTi), can improve sleep disturbances and improve agency-level implementation. The long-term goal of this research is to provide critical knowledge that facilitates the widespread implementation, dissemination, and sustained utilization of sleep health intervention to promote continuous, sufficient sleep and ultimately mitigate cardiovascular disease risk.

The purpose of this trial is to identify effective goal setting techniques to enhance psychosocial processes of self-regulation for the successful promotion of physical activity and adherence to national physical activity guidelines among midlife adults, with the long-term goal of reducing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

Through stakeholder interviews, this study examined the organizational barriers and facilitators to identifying and addressing unmet social needs (e.g., housing instability, food insecurity, utility insecurity, transportation, etc.) among their clients at several community-based organizations providing chronic disease/diabetes self-management education workshops in marginalized populations

Award T29HP46674‐01‐00

PI: Mindy McEntee; 9/15/22 – 9/14/25.

Current community partners: Creighton Community Foundation, Terros, Mercy Care, Advance Community, Unlimited Potential, Valley of the Sun YMCA, and Phoenix Indian Health Services.

This new, high-impact training program recruits, educates, and trains community health workers (CHWs) by providing them with skill sets needed to work in medically underserved communities to strengthen the public health workforce, reduce health disparities, and promote health equity. This two part program utilizes ASU’s Learning Enterprise ecosystem to deliver curriculum to equip learners with a solid foundation of core competencies before matching them with community partners to receive mentored, on-the-job training and work experience through internships or apprenticeships in preparation for CHW certification.

PI: Karey O’Hara

This project combines prior research and new input from family court judges, administrators, and service providers, and high-conflict parents to design and pilot test a contextually appropriate, scalable intervention to reduce post-separation/divorce interparental conflict.

(MPI: Matthew Buman, Arizona State University; Mark Pereira, University of Minnesota)

This hybrid effectiveness-implementation (type 2) trial (R01CA250527) will test the effectiveness of an evidence-based intervention to reduce sitting and increase light--intensity physical activity, called Stand and Move at Work (SMW), for reducing sedentary time in the workplace, and test an implementation strategy (i.e., expert facilitation) for improving implementation fidelity.

PI: Sarah Lindstrom Johnson, Arizona State University

This project is evaluating a school-wide multi-tiered implementation strategy to support the implementation of an evidence-based parenting strategy, Family Check-up, in schools. The goal of the implementation strategy is increasing family-school engagement as a mechanism to support acceptance of the intervention.