Kevin M. Gray, M.D., chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at MUSC, recalled when he first became interested in working with adolescents, particularly those with mental health and substance use issues.
“In my third year of medical school I realized psychiatry was my calling, and I specifically became interested in adolescent mental health and substance use. It was clear to me across cases in the emergency room, the outpatient clinic and elsewhere that young people were struggling with substance use and substance use disorders, and there was a frustrating dearth of effective treatments.
Oftentimes, we’d see that adolescents’ substance use complicated their mental health, made treatment more challenging and had implications for longer-term development and life trajectory,” he said.
While completing a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship in 2005, Gray applied to become a clinical scientist in the area of adolescent mental health and substance use via a program funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and administered by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), which helps to support child and adolescent psychiatrists in conducting clinical research on adolescent mental health and substance use.
When this NIDA career development grant was first awarded in 1998, only a handful of doctors nationwide were conducting research in this area. Nearly three decades later, the program has cultivated the research careers of 32 physician-scientists nationwide – one of which is Gray.
In late August, AACAP announced the newest six awardees for the sixth cohort of the AACAP Physician Scientist Program in the Substance Use K12 Career Development Program, which will run from 2026 to 2031. The five-year program was awarded over $7.5 million in dedicated federal grant funding to train aspiring investigators in youth mental health and substance use research.
At the helm of this sixth cohort of six scholars, is Gray, serving as principal investigator and program director.
I am thrilled to ‘pay it forward’ with my experience as a scholar in the program by serving as director and mentor for current scholars.
“I am thrilled to ‘pay it forward’ with my experience as a scholar in the program by serving as director and mentor for current scholars. We’re responding to a dynamic environment. Traditionally, child and adolescent psychiatry included minimal training in understanding and addressing substance use.”
Gray explained that oftentimes, it was seen as outside the wheelhouse of a child and adolescent psychiatrist to understand or address substance use. “But the data is very clear that substance use disorders typically have onset in adolescence or young adulthood and substance use initiation tends to be in adolescence,” he said. “As a profession, child and adolescent psychiatry as a subspecialty was really missing the boat in terms of addressing the early stages of substance use and addiction.”
The program was developed to expand the knowledge base, strengthen the ability of child and adolescent psychiatrists to address substance use and build a cadre of investigators equipped to conduct clinical research in the field.
Each summer, scholars and their mentors meet at AACAP’s K12 annual retreat. Scholars present their research plans and work with mentors to refine their research and career development goals, equipping them to pursue independent, externally funded research careers in child and adolescent mental health and substance use.
We all work together as mentors, advisory committee members and peers to help shape the scholar’s research. The goal is to provide an intensive mentored clinical research experience that prepares them to become independent investigators.
“We all work together as mentors, advisory committee members and peers to help shape the scholar’s research. The goal is to provide an intensive mentored clinical research experience that prepares them to become independent investigators,” Gray said. The program draws participants from across the country, helping to build research expertise nationwide. Gray said these scholars are poised to become emerging leaders in the field of pediatric mental health and substance use research, as they demonstrate remarkable professional achievement early in their careers and a commitment to research.
Scholars advanced through a highly competitive selection process, including a comprehensive written application and review of their proposed research project. The awardees that Gray will be mentoring and overseeing include:
Peter Jackson, M.D., University of Vermont
Project: Foundations for Family Communication about Parental Substance Use Disorders: Measurement, Cohort Evidence, and Family-Informed Design
Sivabalaji Kaliamurthy, M.D., Children's National Hospital
Project: Developing a Brief Inpatient Intervention for Adolescents Using Cannabis
Amalia Londoño Tobón, M.D., Georgetown University
Project: Adapting and Piloting a Multi-Component Obstetric Practice Approach to Increase Access to Perinatal Substance Use Disorder Care for Mother-Infant Dyads
Elizabeth Olsen, M.D., Brown University
Project: Our VOICES: Tailored Cannabis Use Intervention for Female Adolescents in Mental Health Treatment
Aaron Quiggle, M.D., Mass General/Harvard Medical School
Project: Controlled Trial of Delayed/Extended-Release Methylphenidate for Adolescents and Young Adults with ADHD and Cannabis Use Disorder
Tara Thompson-Felix, M.D., Yale School of Medicine
Project: Cannabis Use in Pregnancy and Child Neurodevelopment: Investigating the epigenetic landscape of iPSC neuron and microglia derived extracellular vesicles
Amy Yule, M.D., was a scholar in the program from 2016 to 2021, while working at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is now vice chair of Addiction Psychiatry at Boston Medical Center. When she began practicing, she was struck by the limited evidence to guide clinical care for youth with co-occurring substance use disorders and mental health conditions.
“There has been a notable focus on increasing evidence-based treatments and access to evidence-based care for substance use disorders over the past 10 years. These efforts have resulted in improved engagement in care for adults. However, new research on interventions for adolescents with substance use disorders, particularly those with co-occurring substance use disorders and mental health conditions, has been limited; fortunately, this program is effectively addressing that challenge,” Yule said.
Heidi Fordi, executive director and CEO of AACAP, said she is grateful for Gray and MUSC’s leadership with the project.
“Growing the field of child and adolescent psychiatrists pursuing research careers focused on substance use and addiction has been a priority for the AACAP for nearly three decades. Our strong partnership with NIDA gives promising physician-scientists the mentorship, training and support they need to become independent researchers. Dr. Gray and our colleagues at MUSC have been tremendous partners in strengthening this national community of researchers and mentors and advancing the science that ultimately improves care for children and families,” she said.
Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at MUSC
Theresa Stratford
Theresa Stratford is the editor for MUSC’s newspaper, The Catalyst. She has worked as a writer and editor for 25 years since graduating from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and mass communications. As a writer, she has worked for the federal government in cybersecurity and for the Department of Energy. As both a writer and an editor, she has worked for a variety of syndications, including national magazines, such as Vogue Knitting, as well as many local Charleston and South Carolina publications.
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