Reena Szczepanski is the Director of the Drug Policy Alliance Network in New Mexico, where she works to end the war on drugs at the local, state, and southwest regional levels. Szczepanski oversees drug policy evaluation, regional and state collaboration, and legislative initiatives, and advocates for open dialogue on drug policy issues in New Mexico.

Prior to joining the Drug Policy Alliance Network, Szczepanski was the Hepatitis Program Manager for the New Mexico Department of Health, State of New Mexico. In this role she was responsible for developing, implementing, and evaluating a comprehensive statewide hepatitis A, B, and C prevention and control program, including contracts and grants management. Under her leadership, the program expanded to provide one of the largest free hepatitis A and B vaccine networks for high-risk adults in the US. The program also provided counseling and testing services, public education, social marketing, health professional training, hepatitis B perinatal prevention, program evaluation, and prevention and education programs targeting injection drug users at syringe exchange sites statewide. Szczepanski also created and coordinated two public health collaborative groups, the New Mexico Hepatitis C Alliance, and the Paso del Norte Collaborative.

Szczepanski is originally from Atlanta and is a graduate of Brown University. Szczepanski has also provided perinatal education and support/case management to teenagers and created a program to assist elderly and low-income patients in accessing free/low-cost medications.

Show full bio

Hide full bio