Carolyn Dresler, MD, MPA
ASH Board Member
Carolyn Dresler, MD, MPA was trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering and the University of Toronto as a thoracic surgical oncologist with clinical practices at Washington University and Fox Chase Cancer Center. She retired in 2018 as the Associate Director for Medical and Health Sciences for the Office of Science at the Center for Tobacco Products within the FDA. Prior to this she was the Director for the Arkansas Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program. Before Arkansas, she was the Head of Unit for Tobacco and Cancer at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France. In 2002-2003 she completed a Master in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with an independent study in the human rights based approach to tobacco control. Her goal is to have fewer people dying from tobacco, specifically from tobacco-caused lung cancer.
January 24, 2023 – Dr. Carolyn Dresler, 2022 C. Everett Koop Unsung Hero Award Recipient, Joins Action on Smoking and Health Board of Trustees
September 16, 2022 – Dr. Dresler received the American Lung Association’s C. Everett Koop Unsung Hero Award.
August 15, 2022 – Guest Blog: The Importance of Cessation Following FDA Regulatory Momentum
October 7, 2021 – Watch “Reducing the Incidence of Lung Cancer: Importance of Tobacco Cessation Education,” a collaborative discussion between Dr. Nasser Hanna, a professor of medicine at Indiana University Health, and Dr. Carolyn Dresler, a retired thoracic surgical oncologist, highlighting their robust knowledge of and insights on the importance of smoking cessation to reduce the incidence of lung cancer.
September 10, 2020 – Watch the recording of our Webinar on Addressing Cessation in Priority Populations with Dr. Dresler here and share it from YouTube here.
April 2, 2020 – Watch the recording of our Webinar on Coronavirus, Human Rights and Tobacco Webinar with Dr. Dresler here (also quoted in The New York Times here).
Read about the history of the Human Rights and Tobacco Control Network (HRTCN), now housed under ASH, of which Dr. Dresler is a Board Member.