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

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 ten 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; Magidson) and (2) in rural areas of Maryland via a telemedicine-enabled mobile treatment unit (R01DA057443; Magidson, Kattakuzhy). She is also leading a newly funded trial with Henry Ford Health to evaluate a peer-delivered intervention to support both substance use and depression outcomes in a certified community behavioral health clinic in Detroit (R01MH137237; Magidson, Felton). 

In South Africa, she is leading a trial in partnership with University of Cape Town "Project Khanya" (R01DA056102; Magidson) to evaluate a stepped-care, peer-delivered intervention to improve HIV medication adherence and substance use in primary care in Cape Town, South Africa. She is also leading several NIH-funded projects in South Africa focusing on how to train community health workers to reduce stigma around substance use and mental health to improve engagement in TB and HIV care (R34MH122268; Magidson, Myers), 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; Magidson, Myers), and how to support community health workers to deliver home-based mental health and HIV services (R21TW012347; Magidson, Myers, Carney).  

With UMB, she is also leading a new initiative "ARTEMIS: Advancing Addiction Research and Treatment through Engagement with Rural Marylanders Impacted by PolySubstance Use" (R24DA061178; Magidson, Kattakuzhy) to create a national consultation model for engaging patients and community members in the research process in rural Maryland to support improvements in polysubstance use care delivery. She is also co-leading with UMB a new 5-year trial "PUSH: Peer Behavioral Activation Utilization to Address Structural Racism and Discrimination and Improve HIV Outcomes in High-Risk, Substance-Using Populations" (R01DA061324; Magidson, Rosenthal) to evaluate a peer-delivered intervention to support adherence to long-acting injectable forms of medication for HIV treatment and prevention among minoritized individuals in community sites in DC and Baltimore.