Dr. Karen Drexler serves as National Mental Health Program Director for Substance Use Disorders in the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in VA Central Office. She graduated from Duke University School of Medicine and completed her psychiatry residency at Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. She served four years as a psychiatrist and Medical Director of the Alcohol Rehabilitation Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and on the faculty at Wright State University School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, where she was Addiction Psychiatry Residency Training Director from 2002 to 2014. Her research interests include clinical trials in addiction treatment and translational research on the neurobiology of addiction. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. She continues to actively practice addiction psychiatry at the Atlanta VA Medical Center.