Grants & Funded Projects

Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael R. Nadorff  |  Funder: SAMHSA (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment)  |  Award: $4.92 million (five years, 2026–2031)

Project BRIDGE is the largest grant of Dr. Nadorff's career. It brings universal substance use screening, brief intervention, and treatment to young people ages 12 to 21 through MSU Behavioral Health, working alongside partner pediatric practices and youth-serving organizations. Young people who need more specialized care are connected to it through a planned referral pathway.

The idea is simple: ask every young person, catch concerns early, and make sure there is somewhere to go when help is needed.

Principal Investigator / Project Director: Dr. Michael R. Nadorff  |  Funder: SAMHSA  |  Award: $1.125 million (three years)

This grant provides no-cost treatment for substance use and co-occurring mental health conditions to Mississippi college students ages 18 to 24. Students can be seen in person in Starkville or by telehealth anywhere in the state.

The grant also funds a psychiatric nurse practitioner, who will be the first prescribing provider in MSU Behavioral Health's history.

Project Director: Ms. Mary Grace  |  Funder: SAMHSA (through Mississippi Department of Mental Health)

Healthy Transitions is the primary source of funding for the MSU Behavioral Health Clinic, which is directed by Dr. Nadorff. Awarded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, the grant is led day-to-day by our team at Mississippi State University under the direction of Ms. Mary Grace.

The program provides mental health and behavioral health services to young people across the entire state of Mississippi who are between the ages of 16 and 25 and who are at risk of, or are already experiencing, serious mental illness or co-occurring substance use issues. A recent and important update: the program has expanded its eligibility criteria, and young people no longer need to be out of work or school to qualify. Any Mississippi resident in this age range who could benefit from our services is encouraged to reach out.

The program's reach has grown every year: 25 young people served in year one, 75 in year two, and more than 100 in year three. The program is now in its fourth year.

Project Director: Dr. Danielle K. Nadorff  |  Co-Project Director: Dr. Michael R. Nadorff  |  Funder: SAMHSA (First Responders–CARA)  |  Award: $3.174 million (four years, 2026–2030)

SAFE RESPONSE MS trains first responders and community members across rural Mississippi to recognize an opioid overdose and reverse it with naloxone. Just as important, it connects overdose survivors with treatment and recovery support afterward, so that surviving an overdose becomes a door into care.

The project runs through MSU Behavioral Health and works alongside a companion award at the Mississippi State Department of Health.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Aggie Rieger  |  Senior Mentor: Dr. Michael R. Nadorff  |  Funder: SAMHSA (National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative)  |  Award: $2.99 million (five years, 2026–2031)

MY-REC provides evidence-based trauma treatment to children and families in rural Mississippi, including children with autism and other developmental disabilities, who often have the hardest time finding specialized care. The project aims to serve 660 families.

MY-REC will also engage communities through listening sessions, an advisory board, and training for community leaders. Dr. Rieger leads the project, with MSU Behavioral Health providing the clinical home.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael R. Nadorff  |  Funder: Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund (via Mississippi IHL)  |  Award: ~$700,000 (one year, 2026)

The Mississippi Rebound Initiative is our team's response to the opioid crisis in Mississippi, supported by the Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund through the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. The project is built around three connected goals. First, we are providing outpatient treatment for individuals struggling with opioid use disorder and other substance use concerns, both in person in Starkville and via telehealth statewide so that people who cannot travel or take time away from work and family can still access care.

Second, we are training members of the public, particularly those most likely to witness an overdose, on how to administer naloxone, the medication that can reverse an opioid overdose and save a life. We are aiming to train at least 500 people and distribute at least 500 doses of naloxone through these trainings. Third, in partnership with MSU TV and Mississippi Public Broadcasting, we are producing a documentary on opioid safety designed to reach more than 50,000 Mississippians, helping the public understand the risks of opioid misuse and how to seek help.

Project Director: Ms. Rebecca Kimbrough  |  Assistant Project Director: Dr. Michael R. Nadorff  |  Funder: SAMHSA  |  Award: $598,510 (three years)

MHART renews and expands our Mental Health Awareness Training work. Ms. Kimbrough developed the curriculum and has used it to train more than 1,000 first responders across Mississippi in recognizing mental health crises, de-escalation, and connecting people with care.

The new award carries that training further, so that more law enforcement officers, firefighters, dispatchers, and other first responders have real preparation before they walk into a mental health crisis.

MSU Lead: Dr. Rachel-Clair Franklin  |  Funder: SAMHSA (through Mississippi Department of Mental Health)  |  MSU Award: $750,000 (five years)

This new statewide Garrett Lee Smith award continues our team's long partnership with the Mississippi Department of Mental Health on youth suicide prevention. Led at MSU by Dr. Rachel-Clair Franklin, the project provides suicide prevention and postvention training for health care providers, first responders, school personnel, and other community members across the state.

Project Director: Ms. Kim Kavalsky (MSU Office for Student Well-Being)  |  Evaluator & Senior Scientific Advisor: Dr. Michael R. Nadorff  |  Funder: SAMHSA  |  Award: $499,652 (four years, 2026–2030), matched dollar-for-dollar by MSU

Bulldogs RISE is MSU's newest Garrett Lee Smith campus suicide prevention grant. It is led by Kim Kavalsky, assistant director of Health Promotion and Sexual Assault Services in MSU's Office for Student Well-Being, and builds on the campus suicide prevention infrastructure created through the two earlier campus grants Dr. Nadorff led. With the required institutional match, the total program value is about $1 million.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael R. Nadorff  |  Funder: SAMHSA (through Mississippi Department of Mental Health)  |  Award: $166,398

The MSU Suicide Prevention Campaign extends our team's long-standing campus suicide prevention work into a focused, multi-channel awareness and outreach effort. The project supports gatekeeper training, mental health screening, and tailored messaging across the MSU community, with the goal of normalizing help-seeking and ensuring that students, faculty, and staff know how to recognize warning signs and connect a person at risk with care.

The campaign builds on the suicide prevention infrastructure developed at MSU through two prior Garrett Lee Smith grants and continues to integrate The Alliance Project, the campus gatekeeper training developed and validated by our team.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Ashley Jones  |  Funder: SAMHSA (through Mississippi Department of Mental Health)

Psychosis is a serious condition that can disrupt a person's ability to think clearly, connect with others, and function in daily life. Researchers and clinicians have identified a state called "clinical high risk for psychosis" (CHR-P) in which adolescents and young adults show early warning signs that, with the right intervention, may be treated before a full episode of psychosis develops. Until now, Mississippi had no specialized services for this population.

Funded by SAMHSA through the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, this grant is establishing the Center for Behavioral Health Screening, Outreach, Assessment, and Resilience (CBH-SOAR) Clinic at the University of Southern Mississippi. The project is led by Dr. Ashley Jones at USM, and our MSU team is proud to be a partner in bringing this critical early-intervention resource to the state.

Principal Investigator: Ms. Bobbie Jo Bensaid  |  Funder: Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)

Now in its seventh year, the Drug Free Communities grant is one of the longest-running funded projects our team has been involved in. Supported by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, this grant works to prevent youth substance use in the Starkville and Oktibbeha County area by strengthening community coalitions, expanding prevention programming, and reaching young people before substance use begins or escalates.

The project is built around the Mississippi Coalition of Partners in Prevention (MCPP) and the MSU Collegiate Recovery Community, which together bring together universities, local schools, community organizations, and students to address substance use at multiple levels. Ms. Bobbie Jo Bensaid wrote the grant and serves as its Principal Investigator, leading the day-to-day work as part of the MSU Behavioral Health team. Our involvement in this grant reflects our belief that prevention is most powerful when it is driven by and rooted in the community itself.