Psychology Department at Mississippi State University, 180 Magruder Street, Starkville, MS (2026)

09/21/2026

Mississippi Youth Resilience Center to serve trauma-affected youth and families

Aggie Rieger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Mississippi State University Department of Psychology, has been awarded an approximately $3 million, five-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to build the Mississippi Youth Resilience Center (MY-REC). This grant builds on Dr. Rieger’s research and clinical expertise in trauma-focused intervention and community engagement, and highlights MSU Psychology faculty’s dedication to both research and public service. MY-REC will be housed in Mississippi State University Behavioral Health; the MY-REC team includes Dr. Mary Nelson Robertson, of MSU Extension, and Drs. Sam Murphy, Cliff McKinney, and Michael Nadorff, of the Department of Psychology.

Mississippi children experience trauma at rates among the highest in the nation. According to a Child Trends analysis of the National Survey of Children's Health, 46.3 percent of Mississippi children have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience. This is the third-highest rate among all states. Meanwhile, Mississippi has the fewest psychologists per capita of any U.S. state, with nearly a tenfold gap between Mississippi and the state with the most mental health providers per capita. The need for evidence-based, trauma-focused intervention is further compounded for youth with developmental differences and disabilities, as trauma-specific treatments and clinician trainings are rarely adapted for this population's needs.

MY-REC's overarching goal is to close Mississippi's trauma-treatment gap with attention to rural youth and youth with developmental disabilities. MY-REC will deliver evidence-based and evidence-informed trauma treatment and build a sustainable, trained multi-sector community referral network. MY-REC will also partner with primary care clinics and schools to learn helpful ways for MY-REC and similar treatment clinics to integrate services. Services will be further shaped by engagement activities including community listening sessions, an advisory board, and a learning community. Across MY-REC, ongoing evaluation activities utilizing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods designs will not only improve MY-REC services, but contribute to broader research and service improvements.

09/17/2026

Danielle Nadorff Awarded SAMHSA Grant to Train Rural Mississippians in Overdose Reversal

https://www.psychology.msstate.edu/news/2026/09/danielle-nadorff-awarded-samhsa-grant-train-rural-mississippians-overdose-reversal

08/31/2026

Bain and Schaff Join CVM Office of Psychological Services
In July, Brett Bain joined the office as the Maggie Freeman-Bishop Graduate Assistant – a position that allows him to grow his expertise and provides extra counseling resources to the CVM. After receiving his associate’s degree from Northeast Mississippi Community College and a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State, Bain has remained with the university as he pursues a master’s and PhD.
Bain isn’t the only new face in the Office of Psychological Services: Branden Schaff is working within the CVM on an external practicum.

Schaff completed his undergraduate degree at Truman State University in Missouri and received his master’s from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. He’s now pursuing his PhD at MSU with an emphasis on neuropsychology – a specialization that Dr. Prince holds.

08/19/2026

Mississippi State University students served summer internships with Youth Villages
Bland, Gonzalez worked at residential campuses in Memphis

Memphis, Tenn. (Aug. 19, 2026) — Hudson Bland and Fatima Gonzalez, both Mississippi State University students, served as summer interns at Youth Villages, a national nonprofit that helps young people with behavioral and emotional challenges and their families live successfully.

Bland, a native of Nesbit, Mississippi, worked at the Dogwood residential campus. He is a psychology major at Mississippi State and completed his second summer internship with Youth Villages. Gonzalez, a native of Olive Branch, Mississippi, worked at the Rose Center campus. She is also majoring in psychology.

This summer, 63 college students from across the nation traded in their classrooms and books for valuable work experience with Youth Villages’ summer internships. This year’s internship class represented 37 different colleges and universities from across 23 states.

The Youth Villages summer internship program is highly competitive, receiving an average of more than 600 applications over the past eight years. For its 2026 summer internship program, Youth Villages received more than 650 applications. Youth Villages, now in its 40th year, began its summer internship program in 2000.

“This year’s group fully embraced the opportunity to gain experience working with the youth in our care,” said Luke Self, managing director of recruiting at Youth Villages. “It was especially rewarding to see several interns return for a second summer with us, which speaks volumes about our program’s value.”

Summer interns served at the organization’s Memphis residential campuses and Nashville-area group homes. Hailing from degree programs in social work, psychology, education and more, interns gained hands-on experience working with youth ages 6 to 17 by supporting their positive development and helping them implement individual goals; planning and leading recreational activities; and serving as positive role models by demonstrating a healthy, wholesome approach to life.

“We want this opportunity to be the first step for these interns on a career path that hopefully either begins with Youth Villages or brings them back to us down the road,” Self said. “Our internship program has been a great talent pipeline for many former interns moving into full-time positions with Youth Villages nationwide after they graduate.”

To learn more about the Youth Villages internship program, visit youthvillages.org/internships.

About Youth Villages

Youth Villages is a national leader in mental and behavioral health committed to finding the most effective solutions to help children, families and young adults overcome obstacles and live successfully. Working through direct services, partnerships, with innovative public agencies and advocacy, we collaborate to bring positive change to child welfare, children’s mental health and justice systems. Last fiscal year, our 5,000 employees served more than 50,000 children and young adults in more than 120 locations in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Youth Villages has been recognized by the Harvard Business School and U.S. News & World Report and was identified by The White House as one of the nation’s most promising results-oriented nonprofit organizations. For more information, go to youthvillages.org

06/08/2026

The Department of Psychology at Mississippi State University proudly recognizes McKenzie Armstrong for presenting their research at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Titled “Where Identity Begins: Caregiver Impact on Racial Identity and Well-being". Through this work, McKenzie contributes to a deeper understanding of
caregiver impact on identity development.
This research was conducted under the mentorship of Dr Danielle Nadorff and reflects the
strong commitment to scholarly inquiry and academic excellence within our undergraduate
program.

06/02/2026

The Department of Psychology at Mississippi State University proudly recognizes senior psychology major Jurdan May for presenting their research at the 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Titled “Paternal Involvement Related to Anxiety with a Moderating Factor of Paternal Authoritarian Parenting,” through this work, Jurdan contributes to a deeper understanding of parenting and its relation to anxiety in the coming generations.

This research was conducted under the mentorship of Dr Cliff McKinney and reflects the strong commitment to scholarly inquiry and academic excellence within our undergraduate program.

05/18/2026

The Department of Psychology at Mississippi State University proudly recognizes Christopher Jolivette for presenting their research at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Titled “When Wrong is Right: The Effect of Erroneous Worked Examples of Geometric Problem-Solving". Through this work, Christopher contributes to a deeper understanding of
cognition and problem solving.
This research was conducted under the mentorship of Dr Allison Jaeger and reflects the
strong commitment to scholarly inquiry and academic excellence within our undergraduate
program.

04/27/2026

Dr. Danielle Nadorff, Associate Professor, Undergraduate Coordinator for the Department of Psychology, and Director of the Grandfamilies Lab, has been recognized this spring for her teaching and research. She was competitively selected for the Ottilie Schillig Special Teaching Projects Award through Mississippi State University's Center for Innovation in Teaching Excellence (CITE), and she was awarded $100,000 through Mississippi's Opioid Settlement Funds to lead a statewide public health research project in partnership with the Mississippi Department of Mental Health (DMH).

The Schillig Award funds her project Broadening Discovery: Expanding Undergraduate Research Access in Psychology. The review committee selected the proposal from a highly competitive pool and highlighted its strength and potential impact on undergraduate education. The course-based research experience is designed to reach more of the program's roughly 800 majors, many of whom have not previously had access to faculty-lab placements. About 45 students each Spring will develop an original project using the General Social Survey, culminating in a poster presentation at the MSU Undergraduate Research Symposium. The award also establishes an in-house poster printing facility in the department, a sustainable resource for future coursework.

The Opioid Settlement Funds award builds directly on Dr. Danielle Nadorff's ongoing research through the Grandfamilies Lab on older adults, chronic pain, and grandparents raising grandchildren affected by parental substance use, populations central to the state's opioid response. As principal investigator on the Mississippi Blues: A Statewide Needs Assessment on Opioid Misuse and Recovery project, she will partner with the Wolfgang Frese Survey Research Laboratory at MSU and the Mississippi Department of Mental Health to produce the state's first unified, systematic assessment of opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery needs. The project combines analysis of existing public health data with a new statewide telephone and online survey of approximately 1,200 Mississippi adults, with particular attention to adults aged 50 and older, a group often overlooked despite high rates of chronic pain and opioid prescriptions. The resulting report will give legislators, the Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council, and treatment providers across all 82 counties an evidence-based roadmap for directing settlement dollars where they will have the greatest impact. Project work begins July 1, 2026.

Psychology Department at Mississippi State University

09/21/2026

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