Susan Weiss is director of the Division of Extramural Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which oversees NIDA’s extramural programs, research training activities, operations planning, and trans-NIH initiatives, such as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. She also serves as a senior science advisor to the NIDA director and as scientific liaison to other Federal Agencies. In her 16 years at NIDA, Dr. Weiss previously served as chief of the Science Policy Branch and acting director of NIDA’s Office of Science Policy and Communications.

Before coming to NIDA,  Dr. Weiss was senior director of research at the National Mental Health Association (now Mental Health America), and previously she directed a translational research program that studied the evolving nature of psychiatric and neurologic illnesses in the Biological Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Weiss has received multiple awards, including National Institutes of Health (NIH) Plain Language Awards, NIH and NIDA Director’s Awards, and an Emmy Award for her contributions to the HBO Addiction Project. She has published more than 150 scientific articles and book chapters. She graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and received her PhD in psychology from the University of Maryland.