Lori D. Karan, MD

Dr. Karan is a full-time employee of the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, and Professor of Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine and Program Director of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine.

Dr. Karan is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Addiction Medicine. She is Fellow of the American College of Physicians and Distinguished Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). Dr. Karan served as Treasurer and Publications Chair of ASAM from 2011-2015.

Dr. Karan has had a varied career which began in 12 step treatment programs and has spanned to methadone agonist treatment and private practice addiction medicine. She obtained a Career Scientist Development Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and spent 10 years on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco performing mechanistic and drug development research.

She co-chaired annual Nicotine Research Roundtables 1991-1999, which spawned the Society of Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT). Dr. Karan was a primary care physician for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) 2009-2012, and Medical Director of Hawaii’s Prisons and Jails, 2012-2015. She is passionate about nicotine/tobacco treatment, practicing evidence-based addiction medicine, prison reform, and developing the next generation of leaders in addiction medicine.