OUR PHYSICIANS
Zachary Kennedy, MD
Co-Founder | Board-Certified in Adult Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry
Professional Background
Dr. Zachary Kennedy is board-certified in both Adult Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. His professional background includes independent psychiatric evaluations, interventional psychiatry, psychiatric emergency care, and state-hospital forensic practice. He completed his adult psychiatry residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center, training across emergency, inpatient, outpatient, consultation, addiction-treatment, and medically complex psychiatric settings.
His training emphasized diagnostic formulation, risk assessment, substance-use evaluation, treatment response, and psychiatric functioning. This breadth of experience supports his evaluation of cases in which psychiatric symptoms, substance use, medical factors, treatment history, and functional impairment intersect.
Dr. Kennedy has performed CPS psychiatric evaluations across multiple regions of Texas. These evaluations have addressed diagnosis, parental functioning, protective capacity, substance use, treatment needs, service participation, and an individual’s ability to understand and implement safety-related recommendations. He has experience communicating psychiatric findings to attorneys, agencies, caseworkers, clinicians, and interdisciplinary teams.
His state-hospital work has included treating individuals undergoing competency restoration and patients adjudicated Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. This experience has involved serious mental illness, diagnostic uncertainty, behavioral risk, functional impairment, treatment response, and the relationship between psychiatric care and legal decision-making. It also informs his ability to distinguish clinical treatment questions from the specific legal or administrative questions presented by a referral.
Dr. Kennedy’s board certification in Addiction Psychiatry supports detailed assessment of alcohol-, opioid-, sedative-, stimulant-, cannabis-, and other substance-related conditions. He considers intoxication, withdrawal, recovery, relapse, treatment participation, medication effects, and the relationship between substance use, psychiatric symptoms, judgment, and functioning.
His background in interventional psychiatry also informs his assessment of individuals with severe or treatment-refractory psychiatric disorders. He is familiar with treatment approaches including electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, ketamine, and esketamine. In an evaluation, this perspective helps him assess whether previous treatment trials were adequate in dose, duration, adherence, and diagnostic targeting. It also helps distinguish genuine treatment resistance from incomplete treatment, substance-related effects, medical contributors, or barriers to care.
Dr. Kennedy approaches each referral through careful record review, structured interviewing, diagnostic formulation, and focused consideration of the applicable clinical and medical-legal questions. His reports distinguish documented evidence, reported history, collateral information, clinical observations, professional opinions, and the limitations of the available information.
Education and Training
Adult Psychiatry Residency — UT Southwestern Medical Center
Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship — UT Southwestern Medical Center
Board-Certified — Adult Psychiatry
Board-Certified — Addiction Psychiatry
Training across emergency, inpatient, outpatient, consultation, addiction-treatment, interventional, and forensic psychiatric settings
Areas of Focus
CPS and independent psychiatric evaluations
Addiction and substance-related conditions
Treatment-resistant and diagnostically complex presentations
Competency-restoration and criminal-forensic settings
Psychiatric functioning, risk, and treatment needs
Occupational, disability, and capacity-related evaluations
Record review, consultation, reporting, and testimony
Professional Affiliations and Leadership
American Psychiatric Association
Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians
Former APA Leadership Fellow
Former member of the APA Council on Addiction Psychiatry
Discuss an Evaluation
Verity provides independent evaluation and consultation services. These services do not include medication prescribing, psychotherapy, emergency care, or ongoing treatment.