DAVID L. ALBRIGHT, PhD, MSW

David L. Albright is a tenured Professor, holding the Hill Crest Foundation Endowed Chair in Mental Health and serves as the inaugural Director of the Office for Military Families and Veterans at The University of Alabama School of Social Work. He is a military Veteran and former research fellow with both the Department of Veterans Affairs and the RAND Corporation’s Center for Military Health Policy Research. Dr. Albright’s purview of responsibility includes the development, implementation, and management of health promotion initiatives to address and improve health- and wellness-related determinants and outcomes among underserved communities in Alabama via a community based participatory approach, with a focus on military personnel, Veterans, and their families. His research is useful for communities, health care providers, and policymakers as they work to address and improve the effective delivery of evidence-based strategies in organizational and community settings.
The Governor of Alabama appointed Dr. Albright to both the Alabama Executive Veterans Network, in which he serves as the Education and Research committee chair, and to the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council, in which he serves as the Community Engagement chair. He also leads a state task force to identify and develop recommendations for the Alabama Veteran population on opioid addiction and treatment, both within and outside of the Veterans Health Administration health care system.
Dr. Albright holds an appointment on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on the Well-Being of Military Families. He was a 2018-2019 Rural Health Fellow with the National Rural Health Association, focusing on rural Veteran policy, and currently serves both on the Rural Veterans Task Force and on Health Equity Council. He serves as a rural social work consultant to the National Association of Social Workers; serves as the Delegate of the Delegate Assembly for the NASW, Alabama Chapter; and is on the Board of Directors for both the Alabama Rural Health Association and the Alabama Rural Health Coalition for the Homeless. He recently completed chairing the Military Personnel and Veterans, First Responders, and their Families and Communities track for the Council on Social Work Education; he recently served as a subject matter expert on the SAMHSA PTSD special expert panel; and he served as a military social work consultant to the National Association of Social Workers.