Kimberly A. Johnson, Ph.D., Director, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, leads the center’s activities to improve access, reduce barriers, and promote high quality, effective substance use disorder treatment and recovery services. Dr. Johnson’s extensive experience in and contributions to the behavioral health field ensure the center’s programs are correctly focused and support SAMHSA’s mission. Dr. Kimberly A. Johnson began her tenure as Director, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, in February 2016. Previously, Dr. Johnson was the Deputy Director for Operations of CHESS/NIATx, a research center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison that focuses on systems improvement in behavioral health and the development of mobile applications for patient self-management. Dr. Johnson was also co-director of the national coordinating office of the Addiction Technology Transfer Center.

Dr. Johnson’s contributions to the behavioral health field have earned her numerous awards – including the Federal DHHS Commissioner’s Award for Child Welfare Efforts and the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors’ Recognition for Service to the field of Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention. Dr. Johnson is a highly-regarded thought leader, who has authored a variety of publications on topics important to the addiction and recovery field, including e-health solutions for people with alcohol problems, using mobile phone technology to provide recovery support for women offenders, and new practices to increase access to and retention in addiction treatment. She is co-author of a book on the NIATx Model and co-author of the chapter on quality improvement in the text ASAM Principles of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Johnson has a master’s degree in counselor education, an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in population health.