Jessica Magidson

Dr. Jessica Magidson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Director of the Center for Substance Use, Addiction & Health Research (CESAR) within the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. She holds the MPower Professor title through the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership. Her research focuses on expanding evidence-based behavioral interventions for substance use and HIV care in underserved settings globally, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and the U.S. She leads NIH-funded trials evaluating peer- and community health worker-delivered interventions to improve treatment retention and health outcomes.

Education: PhD in Clinical Psychology (University of Maryland, 2013), BA from Dartmouth College. Prior roles include Assistant Professor and Staff Psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School before returning to UMD in 2018.

Research interests include global mental health, addiction science, implementation science, and task-sharing models. Key projects include Project Khanya (South Africa), ARTEMIS (rural Maryland), and the PUSH trial (Washington, DC/Baltimore). Her work emphasizes bidirectional learning between global and local contexts to address systemic inequities in healthcare access.

Current grants include 10 NIH-funded trials, with a focus on opioid use disorder, HIV medication adherence, and stigma reduction. Collaborations span institutions like University of Cape Town, Henry Ford Health, and University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Lab/Team: Directs CESAR, fostering interdisciplinary research on addiction and health behaviors. Active in training peer recovery specialists and community health workers globally.