Mark Willenbring

Mark Willenbring, M.D. is an internationally recognized addiction psychiatrist who has been studying and treating alcohol and drug use disorders for over 40 years. He has been a professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis VAMC, where he was Director of the Addictive Disorders Section. His research focused on better ways to manage chronic complex conditions where substance use, mental disorders, and physical disorders often co-occur. He became a national leader in implementing research findings into clinical practice. Dr. Willenbring was recruited in 2004 to become the Director of the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (part of the National Institutes of Health), and through this position he learned about mechanisms of behavior change and how little research findings made their way into clinical care. In 2013, he founded Alltyr Clinic: a novel addiction and mental health clinic that provides outpatient specialty mental health and substance use treatment where each patient receives care uniquely suited to their needs. Dr. Willenbring has been featured in numerous media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNN, MSNBC, and many others. In addition to his clinical work, he is currently advising several companies on digital approaches to patient care. He plans to use his platform and influence to continue to revolutionize the realm of addiction and mental health treatment.