Mark Townsend, MD

Clinical Biography

Mark H. Townsend, MD, MS, is a board-certified psychiatrist in the Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences at UT Health Austin. He specializes in treating patients with more than one psychiatric condition and is also board-certified in addiction medicine disorder. At UT Health Austin, he works with a team of providers who partner with patients, their families, and their primary care providers to deliver multi-disciplinary, evidence-based treatment. Additionally, Dr. Townsend is a professor in the Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where he also serves as Associate Chair of Education.

Dr. Townsend earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Chicago and received his medical degree at Tulane University. He completed general psychiatry residency training at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, where he was chief resident. He is board-certified in both psychiatry and addiction medicine and is certified in community psychiatry by the American Association of Community Psychiatrists.

Dr. Townsend has wide experience in medical administration, directing outreach programs for Charity Hospital and serving as medical director for Odyssey House of Louisiana, a therapeutic community for individuals with substance use disorders. For ten years following Hurricane Katrina, he was hospital center director for the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division, supervising the recovery and expansion of behavioral health treatment programs in New Orleans. Prior to joining the Dell Medical School faculty, he was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tulane School of Medicine and Executive Vice Chair and George C Dunn Professor of Psychiatry at the LSUHSC School of Medicine New Orleans, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. He has been the principal or co-investigator in numerous psychopharmacology clinical trials in the treatment of anxiety, mood, and psychotic disorders.