Dr. Richard Suchinsky has held faculty positions at Stanford, SUNY, Cornell, Northwestern, and currently at Georgetown. In 1970 he founded and was CEO of a community based mental health clinic in Brooklyn, NY for children, adolescents and their families. One aspect of the clinic's function was the development of a treatment program for adolescents with substance use disorders. After 13 years at the clinic he became Chief of Psychiatry at VA Lakeside Medical Center in Chicago and later Director of the Chemical Dependence program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

In 1987 Dr. Suchinsky began his current position as Associate Chief for Addictive Disorders at Department of Veterans Affairs Headquarters in Washington. In this position he has served as VA's representative on the Advisory Councils of NIDA, NIAAA, NIMH, CSAT and CSAP. In addition Dr. Suchinsky is VA's liaison to ONDCP and was a VA representative on the White House Health Care Reform Task Force.

Richard Suchinsky is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and has recently completed a 5-year term as Chair of APA's Council on Addiction Psychiatry.