Who We Are

Dr. Mark Bates, B.A., Ph.D.

Director, Resilience and Prevention (R&P),
Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE)

Dr. Mark Bates, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, clinical psychologist and former pilot, serves as the director of the Resilience and Prevention Directorate at DCoE.

Prior to joining DCoE, Dr. Bates was assigned as the clinical psychology residency training director at Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews Air Force Base, where he developed a model of community based psychology with supporting training competencies and metrics. His first assignment after residency was as the mental health flight commander at Hanscom, Mass., which offered excellent opportunities to collaborate with other Services, components and Veterans Affairs facilities across New England and New York.

Dr. Bates was an airlift pilot for his first nine years on active duty. His flying experiences included combat support missions during Desert Storm and humanitarian missions in the Philippines and Turkey. His final flying job was the Group C-12 chief of standards and evaluations. During this post he completed a Master’s degree in counseling psychology at the University of La Verne extension in Alaska, writing his Master’s thesis on stress and performance in aviation.

Bates received his Doctorate from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and completed a residency in clinical psychology at Malcolm Grow Medical Center. He is a 1988 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.