Joie Acosta is a senior behavioral/social scientist at the RAND Corporation. She specializes in community-based research focused on the implementation and evaluation of prevention and health promotion programs in the areas of public health, positive youth development, substance abuse, sexual assault prevention, and mental health. Her recent RAND publications include Countering Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military: Lessons from RAND Research (Acosta et al., 2021) and Adapting to Adversity amid a Global Pandemic: Stakeholder Insights About Progress and Next Steps for Taking Integrative Action to Build Resilient Systems (Acosta et al., 2021). Acosta received her Ph.D. in community and cultural psychology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
Selected Publications
Acosta, J., Chinman, M., Ebener, P., Malone, P.S., Phillips, A., & Wilks, A. , Evaluation of a Whole-School Change Intervention: Findings from a Two-Year Cluster-Randomized Trial of the Restorative Practices Intervention, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2019
Acosta, J., Chinman, M., & Phillips, A. "Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Healthy Middle School Environments," in R. Dimitrova & N. Wiium (Eds.), Handbook of Positive Youth Development in a Global Context - Bridging the Gaps Between Research, Policy, and Practice, , 2019 (forthcoming)
Joie D. Acosta, Matthew Chinman, Patricia A. Ebener, Patrick S. Malone, Jill S. Cannon, Elizabeth J. D'Amico, "Sustaining an Evidence-Based Program Over Time Moderators of Sustainability and the Role of the Getting to Outcomes® Implementation Support Intervention," Prevention Science, 21, 2021