“Sustainable change doesn’t come from a checklist. It comes from shifting how we think, how we lead, and how we mobilize together.”
As a Managing Partner at Banyan Collaborative, Katie Dively helps practitioners navigate the intersection of complex systems and human behavior. She specializes in challenges that require more than a checklist – those adaptive issues that demand new ways of thinking, leading, and mobilizing people toward a shared vision.
Katie’s approach is grounded in over two decades of experience and her credential as a Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES). Her career is built on the belief that while research is vital, the bridge to a thriving community is built through intentional translation into practice. At Banyan, she leads training and the Guide Service, distilling high-level science into structured frameworks and high-impact resources that shift both practitioner confidence and community behavior.
Today, Katie helps communities and organizations move beyond surface-level tasks to build leadership capacity to grow and sustain behavior change. She lives in North Carolina and enjoys spending time with her family and traveling any chance she gets.
Experience
- Managing Partner. Banyan Collaborative LLC. (2024 – Present)
- Senior Research Scientist. Center for Health and Safety Culture, Montana State University. Bozeman, MT. (2011 – 2024)
- Health Educator. Marathon County Health Department. Wausau, WI. (2010 – 2012)
- Associate Director. MN Prevention Resource Center, MN Institute of Public Health. St. Paul, MN. (2004 – 2008)
Education
- M.S., Health Promotion, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
- B.S., Zoology, University of New Hampshire
Select Projects
- University of North Carolina: Highway Safety Research Center. BTS-40 Handbook for Implementing Traffic Safety Programs in the Workplace – supporting research and development of the handbook. (2025-2027)
- Washington Traffic Safety Commission. Training and Technical Assistance on Growing Positive Traffic Safety Culture – providing leaders, program managers, and regional traffic safety specialists skills and resources to increase the impact of their grant programs and regional efforts. (2025-2027)
- Colorado Department of Transportation. Advancing Transportation Safety – providing technical assistance on developing and implementing their Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). (2025-2026)
- National Center for Rural Road Safety. Rural Safe System Approach Forum – designing and facilitating a forum for local, state, and national stakeholders. (2025-2026)
- University of Tennessee. Lab Safety Guide Service – providing strategic guidance and technical assistance to improve risk maturity and grow laboratory safety culture. (2024–2026)
- Town of Medway, MA. Prevention Guide Service – supporting the development of an evidence-based social norms campaign seeking to clarify the misperceptions of youth substance use norms. (2024–2026)
- Washington Traffic Safety Commission. Co-Principal Investigator. Growing a Positive Traffic Safety Culture (2020-2025)
- Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. Think First Montana – increasing the awareness of risk factors about the use of marijuana for youth ages 12-20. (2022-2025)
- Town of Ashland, MA. Community Guide Service – facilitating leadership capacity building and a structured framework to address local adaptive challenges associated with youth substance use, and sustain community-wide behavior change. (2019–2026)
- Rye YMCA, Rye, NY. Prevention Guide Service – providing leadership capacity building and the development of tools and resources, including actionable guidance for youth peer-intervention, that support healthy development and safety. (2018–2026)
- Washakie County, WY. Washakie Prevention Guide Service – providing technical assistance and support to grow protective beliefs and behaviors among youth to reduce underage drinking. (2019–2026)
- Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. Parenting Montana – tools to address everyday parenting challenges using a process that grows the skills children need to be successful. (2017-2025)
- Shepherd Center. Principal Investigator. Georgia Rural Roads – increasing seat belt use in rural Georgia. (2023-2024)
- Utah Department of Public Safety Highway Safety Office. Co-Principal Investigator. Together for Life Utah – increasing seat belt use in rural Utah. (2016-2024)
- Washakie Prevention Coalition. Principal Investigator. It’s Who We Are – growing protective beliefs and behaviors among high school youth to reduce underage drinking. (2020-2021)
- West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. Co-Principal Investigator. It’s Who We Are. West Virginia – reducing underage drinking and the misuse of prescription drugs. (2014-2018)
- Oregon Health Authority. Oregon mORe: Reducing teenage alcohol use. (2015 – 2017)
- Oregon Health Authority. Principal Investigator. Reflect. Resource. Renew – reducing problem gambling. (2017)
- Idaho Transportation Department. Courageous Voices: Increasing bystander engagement to reduce alcohol-related crashes. (2012 – 2014)
Select Publications
- Austin, E., Otto, J., Green, K., Watson, H., Ward, N. J., & Dively, K. (2021). Guidance for evaluating traffic safety culture strategies (Report No. FHWA/MT-21-001/8882-309-14). Montana Department of Transportation. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/55813
- Center for Health and Safety Culture. (2016). Positive culture framework: A foundation for cultural transformation. Montana State University. https://chsculture.org/category/all-publications/final-reports/
- Center for Health and Safety Culture. (2019). Together for Life report: Increasing seat belt use in rural Utah. Montana State University.
- Center for Health and Safety Culture. (2024). Positive culture framework: A foundation for cultural transformation. Montana State University.
- Dively, K., & Otto, J. (2015). Social norms marketing material review and recommendations for following best practice (Final Report). Drug Free Action Alliance.
- Dively, K. (2017). Positive culture framework communication preparation project to address problem gambling (Final report). Oregon Health Authority.
- Finley, K., Ward, N. J., Dively, K., Otto, J., & Fleming-Vogl, K. (2020). Effectively engaging stakeholders in a safe systems approach to improve traffic safety culture. Federal Highway Administration Safety Compass, 14(3). https://highways.dot.gov/sites/fhwa.dot.gov/files/docs/newsletters/sc_vol14_is3/index.htm
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2024). Traffic safety culture research roadmap. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27488
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2024). Traffic safety culture: Conduct of research report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27489
- Otto, J., Dively, K., & Ward, N. J. (2020). Guidance on growing traffic safety culture: Stories from rural communities. Center for Health and Safety Culture. https://ruralsafetycenter.org/pdfs/RRSC_Guidance_Growing_TSC_2022.pdf
- Otto, J., Finley, K., Arpin, J., Dively, K., McMahill, A., Ward, N., & Hanson, B. (2022). Task 2 report: Guidance about belief change (Report No. FHWA/MT-22-001/8882-309-16). Montana Department of Transportation. https://www.mdt.mt.gov/other/webdata/external/research/docs/research_proj/tsc/CHANGING_BELIEFS/TASK-2-REPORT.pdf
- Sullivan, J., Otto, J., Dively, K., & Hamann, C. (2023). Highway safety behavioral strategies for rural and tribal areas: A guide (BTSCRP Research Report 8). Transportation Research Board. https://doi.org/10.17226/26868
- Sullivan, J., Otto, J., Dively, K., & Hamann, C. (2023). Highway safety behavioral strategies for rural areas (BTSCRP Web-Only Document 4). Transportation Research Board. https://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/182967.aspx