​Dr. Jessica Magidson is an Associate Professor in the Clinical area in the Department of Psychology and is the Director of CESAR--the Center for Substance Use, Addiction & Health Research in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS). 

She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from University of Maryland College Park in 2013 and completed her predoctoral clinical internship in Behavioral Medicine and postdoctoral fellowship in Global Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where she was also an Assistant Professor and Staff Psychologist prior to returning to UMD in 2018. 

She is currently the PI of six NIH-funded trials to evaluate peer and community health worker-delivered behavioral interventions to improve substance use and other health outcomes locally and globally in sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, her program of research focuses on how to expand the reach of evidence-based behavioral interventions to address substance use in underserved settings in the US and sub-Saharan Africa using peer and lay health worker delivery. Her research program aims to foster bidirectional learning between ongoing research in sub-Saharan Africa and local collaborations in Maryland to improve the treatment of addiction and its impact on physical health comorbidities in underserved clinical settings globally. 

Active Projects

Dr. Magidson is leading several trials funded by the NIH HEAL Initiative in partnership with University of Maryland School of Medicine evaluating peer-delivered interventions to improve retention in treatment for opioid use disorder, including (1) among low-income, minority individuals in Baltimore (R33DA057747) and (2) in rural areas of Maryland via a telemedicine-enabled mobile treatment unit (R01DA057443). She is also leading a trial in partnership with University of Cape Town "Project Khanya" (R01DA056102) to evaluate a stepped-care, peer-delivered intervention to improve HIV medication adherence and substance use in primary care in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Other NIH-funded projects focus on how to train community health workers in South Africa to reduce stigma around substance use and mental health to improve engagement in TB and HIV care (R34MH122268), and how to develop a peer recovery coach model in HIV care in South Africa to reduce substance use stigma among providers and improve patient engagement in care (R21DA053212). 

Note: Dr. Magidson will NOT be recruiting a student for the 2023-2024 clinical psychology PhD application cycle.