Judge Dreher has been chief judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the District of Minnesota since 2007. She was appointed to the court in January 1988. Prior to that time, she spent 20 years practicing with a major Twin Cities law firm, specializing in corporate and commercial litigation. In 1996, she was appointed as one of six members of the newly formed Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel and continued to serve in that capacity through December 2005.

Dreher is a 1969 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School where she served as editor in chief of the Wisconsin Law Review. Following law school graduation, she served as law clerk to Chief Judge Roger Traynor of the California Supreme Court. Dreher has written and spoken widely on bankruptcy issues and has taught bankruptcy law at the University of Minnesota Law School. In 1992 she became editor in chief of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal and served in that capacity for a four-year term. In 2003 she commenced work as editor in chief of the Bankruptcy Service Current Awareness Alert. In addition to being active in teaching, writing, and speaking on bankruptcy topics, Dreher has been honored with an appointment by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court to administrative posts within the judiciary. She served a six-year term from 1997 to 2003 as the sole bankruptcy judge member of the Judicial Resources Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and in 2001 she was appointed to the Bankruptcy Education Committee of the Federal Judicial Center.