Why we exist
The field is growing faster than its infrastructure
Psychedelic research is one of the fastest-growing areas in American academia. What is missing is the coordination layer that connects it all.
The problem
Every institution is figuring it out alone
Harvard, Johns Hopkins, NYU, UC Berkeley, and dozens of others are launching programs, funding research centers, and watching student organizations multiply. The interest is real. The momentum is real.
But right now, every institution is figuring it out alone. A student who wants to enter this field does not have a clear pathway. A university administrator who wants to support a new program does not have a governance template, an ethics framework, or a peer institution to call. The organizations that exist in this space are clinical trial sponsors, substance advocates, or research-center networks built for senior faculty. None of them are built to serve emerging campus programs. That gap is NPSA's reason for existing.
Three gaps we fill
Fragmented ethics and safety practices
Campus clubs and academic initiatives are emerging rapidly but largely in isolation. Without shared ethical and safety baselines, standards of rigor vary widely between institutions, creating uneven participant protections and reputational risk for the field.
Limited cross-institutional alignment
Early-stage academic pipelines remain disconnected. Differences in methodologies, training pathways, and data practices slow ecosystem-wide learning and make it difficult for the field to mature cohesively.
A missing coordination layer
No entity is structurally designed to coordinate across institutions without conducting trials, promoting specific substances, or advancing a policy agenda. That connective layer remains absent. NPSA exists to fill it.
The solution
A federated coordination model
Shared ethics and standards
Develop and distribute baseline research and ethics frameworks, raising the floor for every campus program in the network without dictating local practice.
Cross-institutional alignment
Support interoperability across programs through shared language, methodological consistency, and data literacy so the field can speak with one coherent voice.
Early-career pipeline
Connect students to legitimate research pathways, governance frameworks, and national programming so the next generation enters the field prepared.
Institutional risk reduction
Give universities and administrators the compliance frameworks and governance templates that make it easier to say yes to student programs done right.
Scope
What NPSA is, and is not
NPSA is
- +A national coordination body for psychedelic research and education
- +A developer and distributor of shared ethics and research standards
- +A connector of campus programs, student leaders, and researchers
- +A provider of governance templates, compliance frameworks, and institutional support
- +A convener of national programming, lectures, and interdisciplinary events
- +An early-career pipeline into legitimate research, policy, and clinical pathways
NPSA is not
- -A conductor of drug trials or clinical research
- -A provider of clinical services or therapeutic guidance
- -An advocate for the use or decriminalization of any substance
- -A facilitator of or resource for illegal activity of any kind
- -A commercial entity selling products, retreats, or services
- -A substitute for university administration or institutional policy
Leadership
Jarrod McCay
Founder and Executive Director
Jarrod McCay has spent his career as a sales engineer bridging technical complexity and real-world need, helping organizations understand how the right infrastructure solves the right problems. When he looked at the U.S. psychedelic research landscape, he saw the same challenge at a different scale: dozens of campus programs operating in parallel with no shared standards, no common voice, and no coordination layer connecting them.
His engagement with this field spans more than three decades, through the literature, the science, and the lived experience that sits at the center of this work. NPSA was conceived at the Museum of Science Boston's Speaking of Psychedelics event in February 2026, and has been in active formation since, with a board forming, legal structure in place, and an advisory circle being built across the five domains that will define the organization's success.
Current status
Where we are now
Founding website live at nationalpsychedelicstudies.org. Chapter directory in development.
Initial outreach underway with student psychedelic clubs across the northeast. Building the founding chapter pipeline.
501(c)(3) incorporation in progress. Founding advisory circle forming across five domains.
Conceived at the Museum of Science Boston's Speaking of Psychedelics event, February 2026.
This gets built with the right people at the table.
We are forming a founding advisory circle of individuals with credibility across the domains that will define NPSA's success.
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