School Updates
Professor and James J. and Noel W. Browne Chair Shaun Eack is a coinvestigator on a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant for his project, Accelerated Neuromodulation of Prefrontal Circuitry during Clozapine Treatment.
Eack and Pitt Associate Professor of Psychiatry Deepak Sarpal have been awarded $3.8 million by NIMH for their project, Neural Mechanisms of Anticholinergic Burden in Mid- to Late-life Schizophrenia Spectrum Illness.
Eack is a coinvestigator on a project being led by Pitt Associate Professor of Psychiatry Konasale Prasad that has been awarded more than $4 million in funding by NIMH. The project is titled Adolescent Brain Maturation and Psychopathology.
Stephanie Eckstrom, director of the regional MSW program at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, received a Pitt Year of Discourse and Dialogue grant for Racial Equity Consciousness Institute: Bradford Campus In-person Cohort.
Dean Betsy Farmer is the principal investigator on a grant funded by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (CDC Prime) for Project SEEKS: Social Work for Social and Emotional Learning. Farmer also is a coinvestigator, along with postdoctoral fellow Daniel Lee, on a University of Colorado Denver (NIMH Prime) grant, Navigation and Peer Support to Promote Access and Retention of Children in Mental Health Services.
Associate Professor James Huguley is on a team that received a Pitt Momentum Funds Scaling Grant for its project, Linking University-Community Initiatives to Promote a Child’s Thriving Pipeline across Early Developmental Stages. Huguley also received grants from The Heinz Endowments and the University of Chicago for his Just Discipline Project and a grant from the National Science Foundation for Collaborative Research: Black Girls as AI Technology Creators: A Scalable Ecosystem to Support Racial Justice in AI Education.
Ron Idoko, associate director of the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) and research assistant professor, is a coinvestigator on a National Institutes of Health grant for the project Network of the National Library of Medicine All of Us Program Center.
Associate Professor Nev Jones received funding from A-G Associates (SAMHSA prime) for Presentation and Systematic Review of the Literature on Mental Health Recovery. Jones also was awarded a $3.48 million NIMH grant, in collaboration with Joshua Breslau of the RAND Corporation, for A Service User-informed Study of Certified Community Behavioral Health Center Implementation and Impact in New York State.
Jones is a coinvestigator and Pitt site principal investigator on a new NIMH grant, Measuring What Matters: Patient-centered Outcome Measures of Goal-directed Care for People with Serious Mental Illness. The study involves leaders at RAND and the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Jones also is a coinvestigator on a $5 million NIMH grant awarded under NIMH’s Early Psychosis Intervention Network.
CRSP and the Center for Research on Innovations in Services and Equity in Mental Health funded several pilot projects based in Pitt Social Work: Cultural Influences on Treatment Engagement in Serious Mental Illness: A Comparison of U.S. Korean Immigrants and Native Korean Citizens (research team includes Jones); Renew Your Mind: A Feasibility Study to Disseminate Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques through Black Churches to Promote Positive Mental Health of African American Populations (research team includes Assistant Professor Deborah Moon and Professor and David E. Epperson Chair John Wallace); and Partnering with Black Mental Health Providers to Support Assessment and Evaluation of Practice (research team includes Assistant Professor Aliya Durham, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Research Jaime Booth, and Assistant Professor and MSW Program Director Yodit Betru).