Accomplishments Overview

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Executive Director

(608) 443-2494

Biography

Dr. Heidi Luft, PhD, RN has over a decade of experience conducting research to improve promotion of psychosocial wellbeing among children, families, and child educators. Her work has focused on examining and identifying strategies that facilitate high quality design, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based interventions in diverse community settings. She has been called upon to lead and consult on projects by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, National Institutes of Health, US Department of State, Dominican Republic Ministry of Education, and others. Dr. Luft has also published articles in leading scholarly journals and been invited to present for national and international audiences about her research and related best practices.

As Executive Director of the Supporting Families Together Association, Dr. Luft leads her team to administer two state-wide agency networks and implement a number of other special projects that provide quality support to those who educate and care for Wisconsin kids. She is inspired by the power of these networks and projects to drive meaningful improvements in educational, social, and health outcomes for the state. Dr. Luft is excited to continue developing new strategies that leverage these agency networks and strengthen multisectoral partnerships to accelerate advances in the accessibility of quality early childhood education and family supports across Wisconsin and throughout the Nation.

Education

PhD, Columbia University in the City of New York
BSN, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Licenses and Certifications

Registered Nurse, Wisconsin Board of Nursing

Selected Accomplishments and Awards

2024, John Sealy Distinguished Chair in Community Health, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)
2023, Member of the “Advancing Dissemination and Implementation Science” Working Group, National Institutes of Health/National Center For Advancing Translational Sciences
2023, Principal Investigator for Smith Mundt Public Diplomacy Grant, US Department of State
2022, Principal Investigator for Texas Family First Program Evaluation, State of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
2021, Fulbright US Scholar – Teaching and Research

Professional Memberships

Wisconsin Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council
Child Care Aware of America
National Family Support Network
Wisconsin Partners

Selected Presentations

Systems change through school-based social emotional learning in the Dominican Republic and beyond. Waters Center Equitable Futures Systems Thinking Symposium (2023).
A revised pragmatic model to adapt school-based best practice innovations and their implementation strategies for resource-limited settings. NIH/AcademyHealth Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation (2023).
Developing effective collaborative teams to advance social justice and equity in health. Fulbright Program 75th Anniversary Conference (2022).
Developing sustainable strategies for delivery and evaluation of an evidence-based violence prevention program in Dominican Republic schools. NIH/AcademyHealth Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation (2022).
Collaborative research to improve healthcare interactions and outcomes among diverse clients. UW-Milwaukee Healthy People on a Healthy Planet Conference (2019).

Selected Publications

Luft, H. S., Mersky, J. P., Choi, C., Guzmán, J. A. C., Ortiz, M. V. Q., Sehi, G. T., & Temple, J. R. (2022). Prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and association with dating violence and symptoms of mental illness among adolescents in the Dominican Republic. Child Abuse & Neglect, 129, 105668. DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105668
Luft, H., Canario Guzmán, J.A., Reyes, B.,.Pettigrew, J., Sosa Lovera, A., Mendoza, E.R., Stevens, K. & J.R. Temple. (2023). Foundations for the long haul: A process to facilitate large scale implementation of a school-based healthy relationships program in the Dominican Republic. The Global Health Network Collections. Capetown, South Africa. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21428/3d48c34a.d4c4b4ea
Pettigrew, J., Luft, H., Castillo, M., & Canario Guzmán, J. A. (2023). Dissemination and Implementation of School-Based Health Promotion Programs: A Descriptive Comparison of Case Studies in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Global Implementation Research and Applications, 1-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43477-023-00079-2
Luft, H., Brown, R., & Lauver, D. (2023). A hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation design to evaluate a community-based, heart-healthy intervention for women of low socio-economic status. Applied Nursing Research, 71, 151686. DOI: 10.1016/j.apnr.2023.151686
Martin, J., Wood, L., Gamble, C. E., Sedar, A., Montoya, A. E., Mejia, J. C., … & Luft, H. S. (2024). Community-engaged Design of a Pragmatic Interpersonal Violence Measure to Facilitate Effective Evaluation and Equitable Translation of Prevention Interventions in Low-resource Contexts. Panamerican Journal of Trauma, Critical Care & Emergency Surgery, 13(1), 48-56.
Adebayo, C. T., Walker, K., Hawkins, M., Olukotun, O., Shaw, L., Sahlstein Parcell, E., Dressel, A., Luft, H. & Mkandawire-Valhmu, L. (2020). Race and Blackness: A thematic review of communication challenges confronting the Black community within the US health care system. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 31(4), 397-405. DOI: 10.1177/1043659619889111