Greta Massetti, PhD, MA
Principal Deputy Director, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Office of the Director
Areas of Expertise
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
- Violence against children and youth
- Violence epidemiology
- Sexual violence
- Global violence prevention
Greta Massetti, PhD, MA, is the principal deputy director of CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). In this role, Dr. Massetti serves as the primary scientific adviser to the NCIPC director and other senior staff on scientific issues and leads the development and application of science and data for policy and program implementation. Dr. Massetti oversees the center’s surveillance, epidemiology, data science, and public health programmatic efforts to expand and refine CDC’s capacity to prevent all forms of injury and violence. Dr. Massetti provides leadership for NCIPC’s center priorities, including drug overdose, suicide prevention, and adverse childhood experiences. Dr. Massetti also represents CDC in high-level engagements with partners, others in the executive branch, and congress.
From 2016 through 2023, Dr. Massetti led the Division of Violence Prevention’s efforts to address the global burden of violence against children and youth. She served as the lead for the global Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) to determine the magnitude, epidemiology, and health impacts of violence against children in multiple countries. Dr. Massetti built and strengthened partnerships with CDC global partners, including WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, USAID, PEPFAR, and Together for Girls, to increase the availability of scientific data on the topics of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), violence against children, gender-based violence, and related health consequences.
During the CDC’s COVID-19 Emergency Response, Dr. Massetti served as a principal deputy incident manager and as co-lead of the Community Interventions and Critical Populations (CICP) Task Force, where she led the development of guidance on prevention and mitigation measures designed to protect public health and reduce COVID-19 spread in communities. She is one of CDC’s leading experts on COVID-19 prevention in pediatric populations, K-12 schools, and higher education.
Dr. Massetti is a leader in public health prevention science and the intersection of science, practice, and policy. She has conducted extensive research on the prevention and health consequences of youth, sexual, and intimate partner violence, and violence against children, leading efforts to advance violence prevention through evidence-based initiatives that promote the safety and health of communities.
Dr. Massetti is one of the top 30 authors of intervention research productivity in school psychology and has published more than 120 scientific publications and reports. Dr. Massetti received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and a Bachelor of Music degree at Northwestern University. She earned Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in clinical psychology from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook. She completed a post-doctoral psychology residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals.