Jillian Strayhorn

Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Professional overview

Jillian C. Strayhorn, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at GPH and Associate Director of its Center for the Advancement and Dissemination of Intervention Optimization (cadio). She is a quantitative methodologist and decision scientist whose research focuses on the complex multi-criteria decision-making that goes into optimizing multicomponent interventions to achieve public health impact. 

Dr. Strayhorn is an expert on the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), a framework for optimizing behavioral, biobehavioral, and social-structural interventions. Her work in intervention optimization is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together ideas and methods from Bayesian statistics, health economics and multi-criteria decision analysis. The driving mission of this work is to enable more successful identification and advancement of high-value interventions capable of accomplishing complex objectives, including objectives that involve multiple outcomes, efficiency of resource use, or health equity. Dr. Strayhorn collaborates on applications of MOST across various areas of public health, including cancer risk reduction, smoking cessation, HIV, substance misuse, and mental health, among others. 

Dr. Strayhorn earned her BA in Psychology, summa cum laude with distinction in all subjects, at Cornell University, and her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University, where she was the recipient of a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA predoctoral award (F31) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse . Her latest work has been published in Psychological Methods, Health Psychology, and Translational Behavioral Medicine. 

Education

BA, Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

MS, Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

PhD, Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Honors and awards

Alumni Association Dissertation Award, Pennsylvania State University (2022)

Student Optimization of Behavioral and Biobehavioral Interventions Research Award, Society of Behavioral Medicine (2021)

Merrill Presidential Scholar Award, Cornell University (2014)

Phi Beta Kappa Junior Inductee, Cornell University (2013)

Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award, Cornell University (2013)