Wendi Rotunda

Wendi Rotunda, PhD, is a Research Public Health Analyst and health services researcher at RTI International. Dr. Rotunda specializes in designing, leading, and supporting mixed method evaluations of health interventions, programs, and policies. She has extensive experience applying relevant implementation-science-based frameworks, constructs, and measures to formative and multi-site program evaluations, with a particular focus on interventions that promote lifestyle change behaviors such as healthy eating, physical activity, and diabetes prevention.

Dr. Rotunda currently serves as a Task Lead for the evaluation of the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, where she leads assessments of program implementation and beneficiary experience with the program. She also leads activities for the Simulation Model of Interventions Linking Evidence to SDOH (SMILES) project for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the design and execution of a scoping review to identify programs, policies, and practices for inclusion in a simulation model. She also provides guidance on model parameterization related to the impact of interventions on clinical disease risk factors and disease outcomes. 

Since 2014, Dr. Rotunda has served in leadership roles for multiple evaluations of the National Diabetes Prevention Program for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Her notable publications include: 

• Weight Loss in Short-Term Interventions for Physical Activity and Nutrition Among Adults With Overweight or Obesity
• Potential Use of Voice-Activated Personal Assistants in Diabetes Prevention and Management
• Using a RE-AIM Framework to Identify Promising Practices in National Diabetes Prevention Program Implementation
• Implementation of Session Zero as a Recruitment Strategy in the National Diabetes Prevention Program’s Lifestyle Change Program
• Implementing Screening and Counseling for Adolescent Mental Health and Substance Use.