University Professor Faye S. Taxman Earns Additional $16.5 Million Grant

The National Institutes of Health awarded another $16.5 million to the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), led by George Mason University Professor Faye S. Taxman. Taxman directs the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence! within the Schar School of Policy and Government and spearheaded the establishment of JCOIN in 2018 to improve the treatment of opioid use disorders. This additional funding will allow the research network to expand its focus beyond opioids to substance abuse disorders more generally.

Comprising 12 research hubs and two resource centers, JCOIN promotes research into the treatment and management of opioid use disorder, particularly in individuals within the justice system. Taxman explains that, while each research hub has its own studies, her Coordination and Translation Center (CTC) works to “translate what we know works best, according to science, to targeted audiences that can implement them.”

Since its inception in 2018, the JCOIN team has worked alongside a variety of stakeholders including health care professionals, social workers, and police officers, as well as county jails, probation agencies, and judicial courts. By disseminating new research findings and identifying best practices, Taxman’s team bridges the gap between scholarship and practical application, strengthening the positive impact of the research that JCOIN produces and maximizing the value of the taxpayer funding the network receives.

Engaging stakeholders in the process of translating scientific research has helped “generate new ideas about topics we need to research, and issues that we need to develop new materials for, to really advance the field,” and even, “opened our eyes to new barriers that we hadn’t even thought about,” Taxman said, including the social stigma surrounding professionals who work in this field.

With this newest round of funding, JCOIN is rebranding itself as the Justice Community Overdose Innovation Network, reflecting the expanding scope of its research and dissemination efforts.

“Over 130,000 people [across the United States and Canada] die each year due to overdoses,” Taxman said, “and overdoses are one the highest categories—even more than gun violence—for fatalities in our country; it cuts across all socioeconomic statuses.”

Substance abuse is a national epidemic “that affects everyone in our society. You usually can’t find anyone that doesn’t know someone who has had an alcohol or substance use disorder,” she said.  

By connecting empirical research in partnership with practitioners in the field, JCOIN is ideally situated to alleviate the problems of addiction and substance abuse that plague communities across the United States.