Carol L. Alter, MD

Clinical Biography

Carol L. Alter, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist in UT Health Austin’s Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences. With more than 30 years experience in diverse settings, including clinical practice, research, administration, healthcare innovation, delivery and policy, she specializes in providing psychiatric care for patients with medical illness. Additionally, Dr. Alter is a professor and serves as the Executive Associate Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences for the Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. She also chairs the Clinical Quality Committee at the Dell Medical School.

Dr. Alter earned both her bachelor’s degree in zoology and her medical degree from The George Washington University. She completed an internship in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and a residency in psychiatry at New York Hospital through Weill Cornell Medicine, which included training at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Alter previously served as the System Lead for Behavioral Health at Baylor Scott & White Health, where she was responsible for the development of behavioral health services, including the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) delivered to more than 2 million primary care patients. She also served as the Chief Medical Officer of Mindoula Health, the first national provider of technology-enabled CoCM. At Georgetown University, she served as Associate Clinical Professor as well as Director of Psychosomatic Medicine and Policy and Community Psychiatry, where she led efforts to implement a Collaborative Care program in safety net clinics and partnered with the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and others to facilitate reimbursement for CoCM. She has led multiple efforts to develop and expand the use of evidence-based practices in psychiatric care, including the development and widespread implementation of the CoCM, and the use of systematic measurement for diagnostic and treatment purposes to improve outcomes for individuals with mental health conditions. She has also been engaged in research on these topics, helped implement mental health integration programs across both public and private settings, and advocated for policy reforms to ensure reimbursement and access to integrated and collaborative care. She has been involved in and led numerous APA components for over 25 years, most recently chairing the Council on Quality Care from 2021–2024, and she currently serves as the APA representative to the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC) Board of Directors.