Michael K. Sowell, MD, FAHS

Professor of Neurology

Associate in Pediatrics

Director, University of Louisville Comprehensive Headache Program

Also, Division of Neurocognitive and Neurobehavioral Disorders and Division of Adult Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Dr. Sowell joined the University of Louisville School of Medicine faculty full-time in 2002 and founded the University of Louisville Comprehensive Headache Program, of which he serves as Director.  The Headache Program is the first Academic Headache Medicine Program of its kind in Kentucky to serve the needs of patient care, teaching, research and community service in the field of Headache Medicine, serving both the pediatric and adult age groups through September of 2022; afterwards he is now devoting service full-time to adult headache medicine at U of L Health.  Dr. Sowell is board-certified in Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology, as well as board-certified in Headache Medicine.  He is also a Fellow of the American Headache Society since 2010, one of the first in the state of Kentucky.

Dr. Sowell completed medical school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1987.  He completed a residency in Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in 1990.  He then completed a residency-fellowship in Neurology (Child) at Washington University in St. Louis (Barnes Hospital, St. Louis Children’s Hospitals) in 1993. 

Dr Sowell served as Clerkship Director for Neurology from 2002 until 2012, Course Director for the second-year medical students in Clinical Neurosciences from 2003 through 2012, and founded the University of Louisville Child Neurology Residency Program in 2004, and served as its Program Director until 2022 (18 years). 

In addition to his work in Headache medicine, Dr Sowell is an advocate for adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities.  He is a founding member (2019) of the section on Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) of the American Academy of Neurology and is interested in improving the Transitions of Care from Pediatric to Adult Neurology providers, serving on the Child Neurology Foundation Transitions of Care Executive Task Force.  Locally he serves on the Executive Board of the Council on Developmental Disabilities of Louisville.