Kevin Gray, MD, chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, is leading a federally funded program supporting physician-scientists conducting research on youth mental health and substance use disorders.
Dr. Gray is serving as principal investigator and program director of the sixth cohort of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s Physician Scientist Program in the Substance Use K12 Career Development Program, according to an Oct. 19 news release from the system.
The five-year program received over $7.5 million in federal funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The cohort includes six scholars from institutions across the country and runs from 2026 to 2031.
Dr. Gray previously participated in the program after applying in 2005 while completing a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship. The initiative has supported the research careers of 32 physician-scientists nationwide since it was first funded in 1998.
As program director, Dr. Gray oversees and mentors scholars conducting clinical research on adolescent substance use and mental health. The program aims to prepare participants to become independent investigators capable of securing external research funding.
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