Mission-Relevant Center Affiliates' Funding

Grants

Current Grants:

The George Mason University Interprofessional Behavioral Health Training Program for Youth Serving Professionals
PI: C. Esposito-Smythers
Co-PI: D. Goldberg
Co-Investigator(s): Mehlenbeck, C. Sutter, E. Ilhara
Sponsor:  Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)/ Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program for Professionals (BHWET-Pro)
Grant Number:  HRSA 4 M01HP55161‐01‐01
Dates:  07/01/2025 - 06/30/2029
Total Funding:  $2,360,000
Submitted through CEBBH: Yes
Aims:  Increase the supply of behavioral health providers who can competently deliver, and train others to deliver, culturally responsive, person-centered, evidence-based, and team-based behavioral health care for children, adolescents, and young adults, in high need high demand primary care settings.
 
Suicide & Substance Misuse Prevention for Veterans: Transdiagnostic Treatment Development & Pilot
MPIs: K. Renshaw & C. Esposito-Smythers
Sponsor: Virginia Department of Veteran Services (VDS), Suicide Prevention and Opioid Services (SOS) Research Grant
Dates: 8/25/2023 – 5/24/2024, Supplement awarded through 5/23/26
Total Funding: $150,000+$79,414 (supplement) = $229,414
Aim: To develop and pilot test a transdiagnostic treatment for Veterans with suicidality, substance misuse, and other co-occurring mental health conditions.

Detecting and Addressing Bulimia Nervosa in Adolescent Girls through Local Community Service Boards
PI: S. Fischer
Co-Investigator(s): C. Esposito-Smythers; A. Sanchez
Sponsor:  Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health
Grant Number:  1ASTWH220109-01-00
Dates:  10/01/2022 – 09/30/2026
Total Funding:  $1,361,563.00
Submitted through CEBBH: Yes
Aims: (1) Disseminate evidence-based diagnostic tools for adolescent eating disorders; (2) Develop and test a transdiagnostic treatment for adolescents with eating disorders (Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder) using a community-based participatory research approach.

Integration of a Culturally Responsive Family Peer Delivered Engagement Strategy in Coordinated Specialty Care
PI: O. Oluwoye
Co-Investigator(s): A. Sanchez
Sponsor:  NINH
Grant Number:  1R01MH136132-01A1
Dates:  01/2025 - 12/2030
Total Funding:  $750,000
Aims: Eighty-eight percent of youth in the early stages of psychosis reside with family members who have a key role in providing support and facilitating care. Coordinated specialty care (CSC) for first episode psychosis (FEP) has been shown to ameliorate psychiatric symptoms and improve quality of life among youth experiencing FEP. Family psychoeducation is a core evidence-based component of CSC; however, studies conducted by our team have found that CSC programs throughout the U.S. struggle to initially and consistently keep family members engaged, despite the known benefit that family engagement has on client outcomes. Our specific aims are: (1) To evaluate whether integrating family Engagement Strategy (FAMES) improves family engagement in CSC compared to the attention control condition; (2) To examine whether theoretically driven target mechanisms of connectedness, self-efficacy, and motivation mediate FAMES engagement among family members/support persons.

Integrating neural and momentary assessment of parenting, arousal, and adolescent substance use
PI: T. Chaplin
Sponsor:  NIH/NIDA
Grant Number:  K02 DA058840
Dates:  07/01/2023 - 12/31/2027
Total Funding:  $500,664
Aims:  This Independent Scientist Award will provide advanced training in ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and to support an EMA study of parenting, emotion, and substance use in adolescents.

Efficacy and Neurobiological Mechanisms of a Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention to Prevent Adolescent Substance Use
PI: T. Chaplin
Co-Investigator(s): S. Fischer
Sponsor:  NIH/National Institute of Drug Abuse
Grant Number:  R01DA052427
Dates:  07/15/2021-05/31/2026
Total Funding:  $3,100,000
Aims: Test the efficacy and bio-behavioral mechanisms of a parenting-focused mindfulness intervention in preventing adolescent substance use.

Leveraging AI/ML to Improve Cultural Preparedness of Mental Health Professionals
Fellowship title: AIM-AHEAD Clinicians Leading Ingenuity in AI Quality (CLINAQ)
PI: N. Tonge
Sponsor:  NIH/AIM-AHEAD Consortium
Grant Number:  1OT2OD032581-02
Dates:  10/01/2024 - 07/31/2026
Total Funding:  $54,000
Aims: (1) Develop the taxonomy for therapy progress notes from a subset of 300 patients with an estimated average of 4,800 therapy notes to identify culturally relevant categories naturally occurring in therapy sessions. (2) Train and refine a text classifier to identify types of culturally-relevant topics in therapy progress notes. (3) Determine if individuals with more culturally-relevant content during intake are more likely to be from racial/ethnic minority groups and less likely to dropout prematurely.

Resilient Futures: Empowering Adolescents & Young Adults for Healthy Relationships
Sponsor: GMU College of Public Health Interpersonal Violence Pilot Funding
Multiple PIs: L. Adams; A. Roess
Sponsor:  GMU College of Public Health Interpersonal Violence Pilot Funding
Grant Number:  N/A
Dates:  07/01/2025 - 12/31/2026
Total Funding:  $50,000
Aims: (1) Pilot a youth-led peer-to-peer intervention on IPV reduction in one high school that serves low-income, Black and Latino youth; (2) conduct a process evaluation, and (3)  evaluate the impact on IPV attitudes and experiences among those youth in a pre-post evaluation design

Adapting Transdiagnostic Treatment for ARFID in Community Mental Health Centers
PI: S. Fischer
Co-Investigator(s): C. Esposito-Smythers; K. Eddy; J. J. Thomas; K. Becker
Sponsor: National Eating Disorders Association
Grant Number:  N/A
Dates: 03/01/2024 – 03/01/2026
Total Funding:  $50,000
Aims: To adapt a cognitive behavioral therapy protocol for ARFID for use in a community mental health center setting for clients with low resources and co-occurring conditions.

VISR 3.0
PI: K. Renshaw
Sponsor:  Virginia Department of Veteran Services
Dates:  07/01/2025 - 06/30/2026
Total Funding:  $50,023
Aims: (1) Use results of program evaluation of VISR to drive conversion of disparate training elements into a customized, consistent set of trainings that are then integrated into an accessible learning management system that allows tracking and awarding of professional continuing education credits; (2) Evaluate impact on overall uptake of suicide prevention training program.

Intensive longitudinal associations between stress, mindfulness, and alcohol use in highly stressed mothers
PI: Kisner (Graduate Student)
Faculty Sponsor: T. Chaplin (Mentor)
Sponsor:  NIH/NIAAA
Grant Number:  F31 AA031881
Dates:  07/01/2024 - 06/30/2026
Total Funding:  $72,030
Aims: The proposed study will investigate momentary associations between stress and alcohol craving and use in the daily lives of mothers and whether mindfulness moderates this association using EMA.

Mason Provost Office Grant  
PI: R. Mehlenbeck
Sponsor:  George Mason University
Dates:  10/01/2021 - 10/01/2026
Aims: (1) Expand the Stepped Care Model of Behavioral Health to all Mason students, faculty, staff and contractors.  Interdepartmental funding awarded, direct costs to be administered through the GMU Center for Psychological Services

Grants Under Review

Exploring psychosocial adaptation in survivors of violently acquired spinal cord injury
PI:  L. Adams
Sponsor: Craig H. Neilsen Foundation
Dates (Proposed):  04/30/2026 - 04/29/2028
Total Proposed Funding:  $284,581
Submitted through CEBBH: Yes
Aims: (1) Identify distinct long-term patterns of psychosocial functioning among people with violently acquired spinal cord injury, using data from the National Spinal Cord Injury Database;(2) Examine the perspectives, needs, and coping strategies of people with violently acquired spinal cord injury regarding their psychosocial functioning, adaptation to injury, and experiences navigating the healthcare system (3) Examine the perspectives, needs, and intervention approaches of SCI-specialty mental health clinicians to support improved healthcare delivery to people with violently acquired spinal cord injury.

Developing a comprehensive understanding of ethnic victimization using social network analysis
PI: Sevgi Bayram Özdemir
Co-Investigator(s): O. Kornienko; Metin Özdemir
Sponsor: FORTE, Sweden.
Total Proposed Funding:  $485,342 (GMU subcontract $150,000)
Submitted through CEBBH: Unknown
Aims: (1) To test whether adolescents’ involvement in ethnic victimization and their responses to witnessing such incidents are influenced by their friends’ behaviors and/or whether youth tend to select friends with similar behaviors; (2) To identify how, for whom and under what conditions youth become influential or susceptible to peer influence on perpetrating ethnic victimization, defending ethnically victimized peers, or displaying passive bystander behaviors. We test risk and protective factors across multiple levels of analysis, including individual (e.g., empathy, prosocial skills), family (e.g., parents’ diversity attitudes), friendship network (e.g., friends’ prosocial skills, diversity attitudes, network popularity), and school (e.g., ethnic composition, diversity norms).

Grants Recently Completed

Saving Young Lives and Decreasing Health Disparities Through the Dissemination of Culturally Sensitive Evidence-Based Assessment to State-Funded Behavioral Health Organizations
FY 2023 Congressional Directive Spending Projects
PI: C. Esposito-Smythers
Co-Investigators: A. Sanchez; K. Renshaw, N. Tonge
Sponsor: HHS/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), FY 2023 Congressional Directive Spending Projects
Grant Number:  1H79FG000942-01
Dates: 9/30/2023 – 9/29/2024 (no cost extension through 9/29/25)
Total Funding: $943,983
Aims: (1) To train clinicians who serve diverse, low-income youth and families, and their clinical supervisors, in the use of measurement-based care to allow for regular administration of culturally sensitive evidence-based assessments to clients, and (2) help administrators effectively implement use of MBC across their organizations so that all clients may benefit from their use.

Health and Public Safety Workforce Resiliency Training Program
PI: D.G. Goldberg
Sponsor: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Grant Number: U3NHP45404
Dates:  01/01/2022 – 06/30/2025
Total Funding:  $2,049,289
Aims: to deliver education and training activities to advance the overall safety, health, and well-being of a diverse population of nurses, social workers, public health practitioners and health care leaders practicing in rural and underserved communities. Activities include developing and delivering education and training programs to support the health and well-being of healthcare professionals and conducting research on the health workforce.

A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Parental Burden and Adolescent Service Use Following Discharge from Psychiatric Hospitalization
Fellowship Title: Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship
PI: K. Maultsby Harris (Doctoral Student Fellowship)
Faculty Sponsor: C. Esposito-Smythers
Faculty Co-Sponsor(s): D Goldberg; D Goldston
Faculty Collaborators: T. Curby, A. Sanchez
Sponsor:  National Institutes of Mental Health; Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research
Grant Number:  F31MH134462 
Dates:  08/20/2023 – 08/18/2025
Total Funding:  $74,888
Aims: (1) Understand the bidirectional associations between parental burden and youth service use over time following discharge from psychiatric hospitalization; (2) Examine how SES impacts the longitudinal relations between parental burden and youth service use.

Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating an Innovative Community-Based intervention Combining Group-Based Exercise and Behavioral Health Skills-Training for Older Adults with Painful Knee Osteoarthritis
PI: K. Patel
Co-Investigator(s): L. Adams
Sponsor: NIH/National Institute on Aging
Grant Number: R01 AG060992  
Dates:  05/01/2019 – 04/30/2025
Total Funding:  $3,057,017
Aims: Evaluate a community-based intervention that combines a CDC-recommended physical exercise program with a group-based behavioral health program to improve physical activity among older adults with knee osteoarthritis. In this randomized controlled trial, older adults receive a combination of the physical exercise program and one of two group-based health programs: 1) A behavioral health program that based in cognitive-behavioral and motivational interviewing skills or 2) A health education program as an active control group.

Exploring the influence of cultural factors in the Black community about sexual health communicative behaviors among faith-based leaders and college students
PIs: L. Adams; M. Davidson Mhonde
Sponsor:  GMU Office of Research Innovation and Economic Impact (ORIEI)
Dates:  01/01/2024 - 06/30/2025
Total Funding:  $100,000
Aims: (1) Examine how religious, racial, and cultural scripts relate to sexual health behaviors among Black college students; (2) Examine how sexual health and trauma messages are framed by faith-based leaders within Black communities; (3) Examine how the sexual health rhetoric of faith-based leaders can be used to develop support protective sexual health behaviors among Black adolescents and young adults

Parent-adolescent interactions, gender, and substance use: Brain mechanisms
PI: T. Chaplin
Co-Investigator(s): Thompson
Sponsor: NIH/NIDA
Grant Number: 2-R01 DA033431
Dates:  08/01/2018-04/30/2025
Total Funding:  $2,578,998
Aims: This 5-year competing renewal of R01 DA 033431 will use fMRI to examine brain mechanisms of associations between parenting and adolescent substance use, by gender.

Re-imagining Latinx adolescents’ academic success: How cultural assets and social relationships protect against the effects of discrimination
PI: T. Ha
Co-Investigator(s): O. Kornienko; M. Hernandez; A. Rogers
Sponsor:  Spenser Foundation
Dates: 08/01/2021 - 07/31/2024
Aims: To understand how cultural assets, like strong family and community bonds, and social relationships, such as supportive peer and mentor connections, can act as buffers against the negative consequences of discrimination.

Prince William County AARPA Grant
PI: R. Mehlenbeck
Sponsor: Prince William County
Dates:  05/01/2022 – 12/01/2024
Total Funding:  $300,000
Aims: Award to set up and run a Spanish Emotional Support Line and provide BRIEF intervention to Spanish speaking residents.

Michael Jenike Young Investigator Award  
PI: A. Sanchez
Sponsor: International OCD Foundation
Dates: 9/1/2021 - 9/1/2023
Total Funding: $50,000
Aims: Award to support project titled, “Developing a Cultural Adaptation Toolkit to Increase Equity for Underserved Youth with Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders"

Current Contracts

Inova Kellar Center Contract
PI: C. Esposito-Smythers
Co-Investigator: N. Tonge
Sponsor: Inova Kellar Center
Dates:  06/07/2016 - 08/24/2026 (renewed annually)
Total Funding:  $756,734 ($67,685 amendment this year)
Submitted through CEBBH: Yes
Aims: Aid the Inova Kellar Center in the implementation of web-based routine outcomes monitoring, also known as measurement-based care (MBC), in collaboration with OWL LLC and now Neuroflow, LLC. The Kellar Center provides behavioral health treatment to children, adolescents, and their families, and offers a full continuum of services including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, intensive home-based services, outpatient, medication management, psychiatric evaluations, psychological testing, and a therapeutic school. Use of MBC allows the Kellar Center to use client self-report data, collected via empirically validated assessments, to guide treatment and discharge planning, monitor client progress, evaluate the efficacy of all services, and address accreditation requirements. These data are also used to prepare research papers and provide pilot data for grant applications.

Fairfax Consortium for Evidence-Based Practice
PI: C. Esposito-Smythers
Faculty Collaborators: S. Fischer, A. Sanchez, N. Tonge; R. Mehlenbeck
Sponsor:  Healthy Minds Fairfax (Fairfax County Government)
Dates:  1/10/2018 – 06/30/2026 (renewed every 3 years)
Total Funding:  $1,507,968 (with $9,610 supplement from Dept Community & Neighborhood Health)
Submitted through CEBBH: Yes
Aims: (1) Establish and lead a training consortium, in partnership with Healthy Minds Fairfax, for ongoing training in evidence-based interventions for youth and family serving behavioral health providers from local health and human service agencies, public schools, and private provider networks. Training and consultation are provided in interventions for suicidal behavior as well as mental health and substance use disorders; (2) Evaluate training outcomes and provide implementation support. Data collected are also used to prepare research papers/presentations and provide pilot data for grant applications.

Northern Virginia Regional Consortium 
PI: C. Esposito-Smythers
Faculty Collaborator: A. Sanchez 
Sponsor:  Northern Virginia Regional Management Group
Dates:  09/01/2020 - 08/31/2026 
Total Funding:  $856,951 ($56,633 amendment this year)
Submitted through CEBBH: Yes
Aims: (1) Establish and run a training consortium for ongoing training in evidence-based trauma treatments for children, adolescents, and adults. Training and consultation are provided to behavioral health providers from Community Service Boards in Alexandria, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, Falls Church, Loudon County, and Prince William County; (2) Evaluate training outcomes and provides implementation support. Data collected are also be used to prepare research papers/presentations and provide pilot data for grant applications.