Dr. Heath Penland grew up in Texas, and received his undergraduate degrees magna cum laude from Texas A&M University in 1997, including a B.S. in Bioengineering and a B.A. in Psychology, as well as his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas in 2001. He completed residency training in General Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center in 2005, serving as Executive Chief Resident. He then went on to complete fellowship training in Geriatric Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine in 2006.

Dr. Penland practiced in northeast Texas until choosing North Alabama to call home in 2008. Dr. Penland is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, board certified to practice both Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry, and has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.