The goal of the BRIGHT Center is to build resilience
Dr. Kenneth Ruggiero (left) and Dr. Carla Kmett Danielson (right of the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Danielson directs the BRIGHT Center, and Dr. Rugguiero is co-director. The goal of the BRIGHT Center is to build resilience after trauma.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Medical University of South Carolina has received more than $11 million in federal funding to establish the "Building Resilience through Innovative Interventions to promote Growth and Health after Trauma" (BRIGHT) Center, a multidisciplinary effort aimed at improving care and outcomes for trauma survivors.

Directed by clinical psychologist Carla Kmett Danielson, Ph.D., with co-director Kenneth Ruggiero, Ph.D., the center will be housed at MUSC in Charleston and is the first COBRE (Center of Biomedical Research Excellence) of its kind led by faculty in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences department at the institution.

According to the release, roughly three-quarters of Americans experience a potentially traumatic event by age 18, and trauma-related health conditions cost the U.S. more than $300 billion each year. More than 700,000 South Carolinians were reported in 2021 as adults diagnosed with a mental health condition, and over 2.3 million residents lived in communities with insufficient mental-health professional support.

The BRIGHT Center will feature three major cores designed to accelerate research and care:

  • A Digital Health Core, which will develop mobile applications and use artificial intelligence tools to scale interventions;
  • A Community Engagement Core, focused on aligning research with community needs and building trust and participation;
  • A Dissemination & Implementation Science Core, aiming to translate proven treatments into practical settings and ensure reach beyond academic laboratories.

Danielson said the initiative is intended not just to develop interventions, but to ensure they are widely adopted: "You can build an outstanding intervention that truly works ­– but unless it reaches the people it was designed to help, the impact will be limited."

The BRIGHT Center will support early-career investigators across MUSC and the state of South Carolina, offering mentorship, training and infrastructure to help them become independent researchers. Among the inaugural awardees are Christine Hahn, Ph.D., focusing on a smartphone app for traumatic stress in sexual assault survivors; Hannah Espeleta, Ph.D., working to expand home-visiting models to reduce child maltreatment; and Guillermo Wippold, Ph.D., developing a mobile adaptation of a men's health and traumatic stress program.

The center's launch reflects a broader recognition of trauma's pervasive health burden and the need for scalable, accessible solutions. "The BRIGHT Center is meant to serve as a one-stop shop to bring together resources that support people in the early stages of their career in learning how to have the most impact in the field of trauma," Danielson said

Originally published on counselheal.com