Dr. Lora Peppard is the Deputy Director for Treatment and Prevention for the Washington/ Baltimore HIDTA and the Director of ADAPT, a national training and technical assistance division supporting the integration of evidence-based substance use prevention strategies into communities. She also serves as Executive Director for the new Center for Advancing Prevention Excellence at the University of Baltimore and President of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. Prior to her appointment with HIDTA, she was an Associate Professor at George Mason University and Project Director for several federally funded substance use and behavioral health prevention grants.

Dr. Peppard has over 20 years of clinical experience as a psychiatric nurse practitioner in emergency, inpatient and outpatient settings. She has developed innovative, system-wide programs to address the unmet substance use and behavioral health needs across a variety of populations. Dr. Peppard serves as a community, state, national, and international consultant on substance use and behavioral health prevention. She has authored several peer-reviewed publications on her work.