Brad Donohue

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Professor, Department of Psychology

Director, The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (TOPPS)

Expertise: Psychology, Family behavior therapy, Sport performance, Mental health

Biography

Bradley Donohue is a psychology professor and director of in the department of psychology. His research expertise is in substance abuse, child maltreatment, family violence, conduct disorders, and the improvement of mental health and sport performance in athletes.

A national expert on sports psychology and wellness, he is the creator of The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (), a mental health program targeted specifically to student athletes from elementary-age through college. The program blends traditional mental health services with sport culture and customized performance coaching — essentially meeting athletes where they are to develop ways to enhance both mental health and performance. The program de-stigmatizes mental health care by offering wellness training to all team members and focusing on optimizing performance, not fixing problems. This work focuses on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of family-supported interventions to assist in goal achievement.

Additionally, Donohue is one of the developers of Family Behavior Therapy (FBT), an evidence-based treatment listed in national clearinghouses, such as SAMHSA's , and the . His research interests include the development and adoption of evidence-based treatments (primarily FBT), psychometric development, and improving the functioning of mental health clinics through effective supervision and quality assurance.

Donahue has directed projects funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). He is a recipient of the Western Psychological Association Early Career Research Award and the UNLV Barrick Scholar Award for Distinguished Research. In 2023, he was appointed to the British & Irish Boxing Authority (BIBA) Medical Advisory Board.

Education

Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Nova Southeastern University
B.A., Psychology, University of Kansas

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health & medicine, psychology & human behavior, sports and recreation

Brad Donohue In The News

You might feel sweaty, breathless and exhausted after a workout — but chances are that burst of activity has also left you feeling pretty great too. Beyond building muscle, burning calories, improving flexibility and all the other physical benefits associated with exercise, working out also has a profound effect on your mental health thanks to the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and endorphins that can help reduce stress, improve your mood (and sleep!) and contribute to a host of other positives for your overall well-being.

Healthline

Weekend warriors reap similar brain health benefits as individuals who exercise more regularly throughout the week. Researchers have increasingly taken interest in the “weekend warrior” exercise phenomenon: when an individual tends to get the majority of their physical activity in during one or two days of the week.

Well+Good

What did it take for Allie Wilson to make her first Olympic team? If you ask her, it wasn’t a physical breakthrough on the track—it was the work she’s been doing “upstairs.”