Dr. Krisanna Deppen is a board-certified physician in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine who has dedicated her career to advancing addiction medicine education and transforming how healthcare professionals approach substance use disorders. After completing her own Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Swedish Medical Center in 2008, Dr. Deppen spent over a decade preparing to launch one of the nation's early ACGME-accredited Addiction Medicine Fellowship programs at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center in 2019. Recognizing that true systems change requires not just skilled clinicians but skilled educators, she built the fellowship alongside a consultation service that now spans five OhioHealth hospitals, creating robust training environments for fellows, residents, medical students, and interdisciplinary staff.

As founding Program Director, Dr. Deppen has cultivated a training culture centered on compassionate, evidence-based care and peer education. She teaches fellows to be educators themselves—leading both formal curricula and bedside teaching using motivational interviewing, patient-centered language, and shared decision-making. Her vision extends beyond individual patient care: she trains all medical professionals to treat substance use disorders with the same rigor and compassion as any chronic medical condition. This philosophy has shaped graduates who are now advancing addiction medicine across practice settings, including Dr. Haileigh Ross, an inaugural fellow whom Dr. Deppen mentored into the Program Director role. In addition to her fellowship leadership, Dr. Deppen serves as System Lead for Addiction Medicine, Associate Program Director for the Addiction Medicine fellowship, Medical Staff President-Elect, and has served as President of the Ohio Society of Addiction Medicine. She holds a Masters in Population Health Management from Jefferson University and continues to expand addiction medicine services across the OhioHealth system.