This supplement is for the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) Coordination and Translation Center (5U2CDA050097, Taxman) and is designed to accelerate Dr. TaLisa Carter’s career as an independent researcher. Dr. Carter is a trained criminologist with expertise in race and gender. This supplement and the mentors (Drs. Taxman, Rudes, and Gordon) are all part of JCOIN HEAL cooperative and Dr. Carter will have access to the opportunities afforded by nearly150 JCOIN researchers actively involved in health services and addiction research in justice settings. The research plan outlines a study that enhances the parent study, Fostering MAT Use in Justice Populations (PIs Molfenter & Taxman), by conducting two waves of interviews with 80 staff (total of 160 interviews or 200 hours of interviews) working on using MAT in jail and community-treatment programs. The interviews will focus on the understanding, acceptance, feasibility, and value of MAT from the perspectives of the staff that are part of this study. The staff sampling will ensure that interviewees are diverse in terms of race, gender, and class to garner how social position affects perception of MAT and innovations in their workplace. This is an understudied area of research on staff buy-in and acceptability. This fits within Dr. Carter’s long-term career goal: to conduct research that establishes her as an independent researcher focused on the impact of diversity of staff as it relates to health-oriented implementation strategies for innovations in the justice system. Dr. Carter desires to strengthen her research skills to work in justice settings and to implement mixed method studies. To achieve her goal, she has established the following objectives: 1) receive training in implementation science, mixed methods, addictions, and health services to understand how to study the implementation process and reforms in justice setting; 2) conduct an pilot study on system actors to examine how race, ethnicity, gender, and class affect the implementation of MAT and innovations in justice settings, and 3) enhance her research productivity through papers, presentations, and development of an R01 on staff diversity as it relates to their openness to innovations, buy-in, readiness for organizational change, and differential perceptions of organizational commitment, trust, and job satisfaction. For the parent study, Dr. Carter will use the quantitative data generated through this study and her interviews to understand staff receptivity to MAT and examine sustainability of MAT. This training plan will be accomplished through mentorship from leading researchers, participation in JCOIN activities, seminars, training programs, and completion of the proposed research study. Dr. Carter will participate in weekly research meetings for JCOIN protocols (including the parent study for this grant), the Qualitative and Implementation Science (and potentially others) workgroups, engage in mentorship meetings (biweekly with Dr. Taxman, monthly with Drs. Rudes and Gordon and quarterly meetings with teams of JCOIN researchers working on related studies), take related courses in related topics (outlined in her plan), and collaborate widely with JCOIN researchers. The dedicated time afforded by this supplement will connect Dr. Carter with esteemed researchers affiliated with JCOIN and advance her career.

MAT utilization for justice-involved individuals is challenging due to perspectives of staff. With over 10 million individuals passing through jails each year, understanding the perspectives of diverse staff can elicit how race, gender, and class affect acceptance of MAT. Implementation science can assist in identifying factors to increase utilization of MAT.