Dartmouth Inaugural MS in Implementation Science Cohort Presents Capstone IMPACT Projects
The Master of Science in Implementation Science (MSIS) program at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine reached an exciting milestone this June as six students from the program’s inaugural cohort presented their Capstone IMPACT Projects, showcasing the breadth of implementation science and its potential to address challenges across healthcare, education, public health, and community settings.
The Implementation Science program welcomed 27 students in its first year, with six students completing the accelerated nine-month curriculum and becoming the program’s first graduates. Throughout the first week of June, administrators, faculty, and students from across Geisel’s programs gathered to support the presenters as they shared the culmination of months of research and applied learning.
The Capstone project serves as a hallmark experience for students in the program, allowing them to apply implementation science frameworks and methods to a topic of professional and personal significance.
Student projects reflected the diversity of interests represented within the cohort. Topics ranged from healthcare delivery and mental health to Indigenous health, public policy, higher education, and military resilience. Presentations included A Systematic Review of Implementation Strategies in the Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa, which examined approaches to improving the adoption and delivery of evidence-based interventions, and Meeting Veterans Where They Already Are: A Trial of Community-Embedded App-Based Suicide Prevention, which addressed approaches to suicide prevention among veterans.
Additional presentations highlighted opportunities to improve health and community outcomes. Integrating Traditional Healing into Tribal Healthcare: An Implementation Science Perspective explored pathways for incorporating traditional healing practices into tribal healthcare systems, while Making Healthy Food Policy Work: Evaluating GST Removal for Māori Tamariki and Whānau examined the implementation of a public policy intervention designed to improve access to healthy foods. Other projects focused on educational and organizational settings, including Implementation Science for Advancing Inclusive STEM Higher Education and From Evidence to Readiness: A Hybrid Type 1 Effectiveness–Implementation Trial of a Multicomponent Resilience Intervention for a State National Guard.
Together, the projects demonstrated how implementation science can act as a bridge between evidence and practice, helping organizations and communities translate knowledge into change.
“The IMPACT project was designed to allow students to explore an area of interest while viewing it through an implementation science lens,” said Gayle Cohen, M.Ed., director of the Master of Science in Implementation Science program. “This first group of graduating students, despite having a ‘trial by fire’ as the inaugural cohort to complete the project, far exceeded expectations with their work on a variety of topics, from Indigenous health to higher education, supporting veterans, and treatments for anorexia nervosa. These students have laid a solid foundation for the cohorts to come, and the program could not be more proud of them as our first degree recipients.”
Student reflections echoed the value of the capstone experience. One student noted that “Overall, the IMPACT Project was an important assignment that helped to solidify my learning throughout this program,” while another described it as “a great way for to tie together the concepts learned in each course and create a new body of work that contributes to the field of implementation science and higher education.”
For many students, the project provided an opportunity to deepen their understanding of implementation science while developing practical skills for future leadership and research. One reflection highlighted how the project demonstrated that “effectiveness and implementation outcomes can be evaluated simultaneously to accelerate translation of evidence into practice,” while another emphasized gaining “a deeper understanding of implementation science not only as a research field, but also as a relational and community-centered process.”
The success of the inaugural capstone presentations sets the stage for future cohorts to build upon. Through their work, these first graduates demonstrated the power of implementation science to improve systems, strengthen communities, and advance evidence-based practice across disciplines. Congratulations to the MSIS Class of 2026!
Written By: Mia Soucy
POSTED 6/16/2026 AT 03:13 PM IN #implementationscience #msis #capstone
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