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91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ-St. Louis - Chancellor Search Committee

NAME TITLE COMMITTEE ROLE
Beth Huebner Professor, Criminology & Criminal Justice Co- Chair
Kirk Richter Chancellor’s Council Co- Chair
Audri Adams Graduate Student, History Member
Joe Blanner President, UMSL Alumni Association Member
Alan Byrd Vice Provost, Enrollment Management Member
Curtis Coonrod Vice Provost, Student Affairs Member
Dana Beteet Daniels Title IX Administrator & Chief Equity Officer, Human Resources Member
Alexei Demchenko Professor, Chemistry Member
Alice Hall Associate Professor and Department Chair, Communication and Media; Chair UMSL Faculty Senate Member
Paul Herring Vice Chancellor, University Advancement Member
Charles Hoffman Dean, Business Administration Member
Tiffany Izard Chair, UMSL Staff Association Member
Jon McGinnis Professor and Department Chair, Philosophy Member
Christopher Miller Director, Student Academic Support Services/ Academic Affairs Member
Rob Paul Professor and Director, MIMH Member
McKenzie Schuessler President, Student Government Association Member
Ann Taylor Dean, Education Member
Sandra Trapani Teaching Professor & Chair, Language and Cultural Studies Member
Sha-Lai Williams Associate Professor, Social Work Member
Marsha Fischer Associate Vice President & CHRO, UM System Ex-officio
Tim McIntosh Director, Recruitment & Executive Search, UM System Search Team
Tiffany Hendren Executive Recruitment Coordinator, UM System Search Team

 

Audri Adams
Audri Adams

Audri Adams completed her BA in History, Honors College Certificate, and Professional Writing Certificate from the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ–St. Louis in 2017. She is currently pursuing an MA in History, with an emphasis in Animal History, and works as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the History department. Her continued commitment to the UMSL community can be seen in her prior leadership positions, including serving as President of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society throughout the 2018-19 academic year and organizing events such as the first annual History Career Panel. Throughout her studies, she has also continued her Administrative Assistant position for the Honors College.

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Dana Beteet Daniels
Dana Beteet Daniels

Dana Beteet Daniels currently serves as the Title IX Administrator and Chief Equity Officer of the Title IX and Equity Office at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ St. Louis Campus. After obtaining her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Sociology from Illinois State University, Dana began her career working in the insurance industry. While working in claims management, she developed her employees in the area of litigation management and represented her company at pre-trial settlement conferences throughout the United States.

She served as the District Director for (former) Missouri State Senator Wayne Goode over 10 years. It was during this time that Dana transitioned into the field of Higher Education, accepting a position in Public Affairs at UMSL in 1999. She later moved into the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity where she utilized her skills in resolving campus sexual misconduct and equity complaints.

Dana’s passion for integrity and fairness, as well as her perspicacity and work ethic, have provided her with the foundation essential to serve in her current position. She is a champion for change and recognizes the impact that workplace behaviors can potentially have on others. In her position, Dana oversees all university investigations in response to complaints of Title IX (as well as Title VII) violations involving students, faculty and staff.  Her responsibilities include identifying and implementing training and prevention programs in support of Title IX requirements, to ensure that the campus community is compliant with federal, state and local legislation related to discrimination. In addition, Dana also serves as the designated campus mediator.

 

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Joe Blanner
Joe Blanner

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Alan Byrd

Alan Byrd

Alan Byrd, Jr. is the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ-St. Louis. In this role, he is responsible for leading, planning, and coordinating all undergraduate recruitment initiatives. He also serves as co-chair of the Strategic Enrollment Planning Council that is charged with shaping UMSL’s marketing, recruitment, and retention strategies to ensure optimal enrollment and student outcomes.  

Alan has 20 years of experience working in college admissions and enrollment management. He began his tenure at UMSL in 2009 as the Director of Admissions and led the university to several milestones for enrollment growth, diversity, and quality. His leadership responsibilities expanded in 2012 when he was promoted to Dean of Enrollment Services, which included overseeing the Welcome Center, Admissions, Financial Aid, Registration, and Student Retention Services.  

As a champion for college access and affordability, Alan is committed to removing barriers for all students to pursue higher education. He is currently the co-chair of St. Louis Graduates, which is a collaborative network of K-12 and higher education leaders, youth serving non-profit organizations, business leaders, and philanthropists who are working to increase postsecondary degree attainment for underrepresented students in the St. Louis Region. The efforts of St. Louis Graduates have led to St. Louis being one of 24 cities designated as a Talent Hub by the Lumina Foundation and Kresge Foundation.  

Alan earned a B.A. in Communication and M.A. in Higher Education Administration from Southeast Missouri State University.  He is currently working on his Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership at UMSL.

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Alexei Demchenko

Alexei Demchenko

Alexei Demchenko was born (1965), raised, and educated in Moscow, Russia. He graduated from the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia with a Diploma (MS) in Chemical Engineering (1988) before joining the laboratory of the late Professor Nikolay Kochetkov at the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry in Moscow. In 1993 he was awarded a PhD in organic chemistry for his work on the development of thiocyanate methodology for glycosylation. After two post-doctoral years under Professor Kochetkov, he joined Professor Geert-Jan Boons’ group at the University of Birmingham (UK) as a BBSRC post-doctoral research fellow. In 1998 he moved with Professor Boons to the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia (USA) as a research associate. In 2001 he joined the faculty at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ - St. Louis as an Assistant Professor where he was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure (2007) and Professor (2011). In 2014 Alexei Demchenko was appointed Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry.  

Professor Demchenko received a number of professional recognitions and awards including a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (2005), a New Investigator Award from the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (2007), the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creativity (2013), the St. Louis Award by the American Chemical Society (2014), and the UMSL Senior Investigator of the Year Award (2017). Professor Demchenko has co-authored more than 175 articles (H-index 40) and has given around 150 invited lectures and seminars in the US and abroad. He has been serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Carbohydrate Chemistry and a member of many editorial/advisory boards. Professor Demchenko organized and chaired many international symposia including 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Carbohydrates. From 2019 he has been serving as the President of the US Advisory Committee for the International Carbohydrate Symposia. Professor Demchenko is the National Representative of the USA for the International Carbohydrate Organization and the 2020-21 Chair of the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. His research interests are in the area of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry that include: novel glycosylation methods; stereocontrol of the glycosidic bond formation; strategies for expeditious assembly of complex oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates; synthetic vaccines and glycopharmaceuticals; human milk oligosaccharides and other food additives and ingredients; solid phase automated synthesis. His research program has been funded by grants from a variety of private and public foundations totaling more than $10 million.

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Curtis Coonrod
Curtis Coonrod

Dr. Curtis C. Coonrod is Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ – St. Louis (June 2001 to present).  He serves as the chief student affairs officer and oversees all student service related offices, including campus and residential life,  student center, recreation center, health, counseling, disability services, career services, athletics, student social services, veteran’s center, and the SUCCEED program.  Dr. Coonrod serves as a senior officer in the campus administration and is a member of the Chancellor's Cabinet.

Dr. Coonrod has over 30 years of experience in higher education.  He began his career as an Admission’s Counselor at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ – St. Louis in 1983 and served as an Assistant and Associate Director of Admissions at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ- St. Louis through 1991.  In January, 1992, Dr. Coonrod was named Director of University Admissions at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.  He served in that capacity until his return to the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ – St. Louis in 1997 to assume the position of Director of Admissions.  In 2001, Dr. Coonrod was named Interim Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and a year later named permanent Vice Chancellor.  A reorganization in 2005 changed his position to Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students with the same responsibilities.

Dr. Coonrod has been active in several professional organizations such as the Missouri Association of College Admissions Counselors and the Missouri Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.  He held numerous leadership positions in both of the organizations including a year as President of each organization.  In addition, Dr. Coonrod has been active in national organizations such as the National Association of College Admissions Counselors, National Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

Dr. Coonrod has also been engaged in various community programs and activities.  He was a founding board member of College Summit – St. Louis and also served on the board for the Citizens for Modern Transit.

Dr. Coonrod received a Doctorate of Education Leadership and Management from Capella University in December of 2012, a Master’s in Gerontology from the University of Illinois – Springfield in 1983, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Illinois College in 1981.  In addition to his administrative responsibilities, Dr. Coonrod holds an appointment as Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Education and has taught courses on governance in higher education and student affairs administration.  His research interest is in retention of all college populations with particular emphasis on African American males.

Curt and his wife Dianne live in St. Louis and enjoy attending concerts and cultural events.

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Alice Hall
Alice Hall

Alice Hall serves as the Chair of the UMSL Faculty Senate/University Assembly and as Chair of the Department of Communication and Media. She received her Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.  Her research focuses on the selection and interpretation of entertainment media.  She is interested in how audiences make sense of mediated stories and in how these interpretive processes affect the stories’ influence on the audiences’ views of the world. She has studied perceptions of reality programs, how audiences evaluate the realism of fictional media, and the factors that contribute to audiences’ involvement in stories. Her work has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Communication, Media Psychology, and the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.  Dr. Hall’s teaching focuses on mass communication theory.

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Paul Herring
Paul Herring

Paul Herring serves as Vice Chancellor for Advancement at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ–St. Louis where he strengthens awareness, engagement and financial support for the university community. Since his appointment in November 2018, Herring has overseen strategic planning and resource allocation efforts across four main units including university development, alumni engagement, marketing and communications, and St. Louis Public Radio. As UMSL’s chief fundraising officer, his has helped secure nearly $25 million in gifts and pledges in fiscal year 2019 and to launch a matching scholarship program with the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ System to support merit and need-based students.

A results-focused and collaborative fundraising professional, Herring joined UMSL after serving as vice president for advancement at Texas Tech University where he was responsible for all fundraising operations and led the university to record fundraising including nearly $100 million in fiscal year 2018 alone. He first joined TTU in 2012 as executive senior director of development and external relations for the Rawls College of Business where his success led to continued leadership growth.

Prior, Herring served as associate vice president of development and external relations at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas; vice president of resource development at the Palmer Home for Children in Columbus, Mississippi; and as director of development for science and technology at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. He began his career with a decade of successful corporate sales and relationship management at Western Union North America.

Herring, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, holds a Bachelor of Arts in public relations and advertising from the University of Alabama. He and his wife, Beth, together with their three children, Brack, John and Grace, love spending time outdoors, watching football, basketball and St. Louis Cardinal baseball.

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Charles Hoffman
Charles Hoffman

Charlie has served as the dean of the College of Business Administration at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ-St. Louis since August, 2013.  He is an alumni of the college, earning his BS and MBA degrees in the '70's.

He began his career at IBM upon graduation, selling large computer systems to health care and government organizations in the St. Louis region.  He joined Southwestern Bell Corporation in 1980, beginning in sales and progressing to national account manager for the Monsanto account.  With the maturation of wireless technology in the early ‘80’s, he joined the newly formed Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, becoming the first vice president and general manager in St. Louis, and leading the region to be the third market in the country to introduce cellular service. He later ran all of the markets outside Texas for the company.

Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC), later AT&T,  moved Hoffman in 1989 to successively turn around markets in Boston, Washington/Baltimore, and the country of Mexico. Ing. Carlos Slim and SBC promoted him to Director General of Telcel, the national wireless company in Mexico, in 1994.  He introduced pre-paid service, greatly expanded the network and built the data center and billing system that now supports one of the largest wireless networks in the world, America Movil.

Hoffman retired from Telcel and Southwestern Bell in 1996 to join Sprint PCS as President, Northeast to build and  run their largest markets, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and eventually Washington D.C. Two years later he moved to Toronto, Canada to serve as President and CEO of Cantel, the national wireless company in Canada. He re-branded the company as Rogers Wireless, formed a multi-billion dollar partnership with AT&T and British Telecom and grew this publicly traded company to the leading market share position.

Hoffman returned to the U.S. in 2001 to take on the challenge of turning around a Silicon Valley- based company, Covad Communications.  While at Covad he negotiated a restructuring of  the debt of this national broadband company, solidified its partnerships with large wholesale customers such as AT&T, Verizon and EarthLink, and eventually sold the company to private equity.

Hoffman retired in 2008 and continued to serve on the boards of directors of publicly held cloud-based companies, helping grow and prepare Chordiant, Tollgrade, and Softlayer to sell for the benefit of the shareholders. He served as a director at Synchronoss Technologies for 10 years before retiring from that board in 2015.

His not for profit service has since focused on Vianney High School, where he is chair of Advancement and a member of their Hall of Fame, and at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ-St. Louis, where he is a distinguished alumni and now serves as dean.  As dean he raised the funds to build a new business building, now occupied since August, '17, and introduced new programs in entrepreneurship and cybersecurity and a new doctoral program. The College is top 20 nationally ranked in international business and information systems, and internationally ranked for the doctoral program.

He and his wife Maureen have four grown children and eight grandchildren.

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Beth Huebner
Beth Huebner

Beth M. Huebner is a professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ-St. Louis. Her principal research interests include the collateral consequences of incarceration, racial and gender disparities in the criminal justice system, and public policy. She is currently serving as principal investigator for the St. Louis County MacArthur Safety + Justice Challenge which is tasked with reducing the jail population in St. Louis County through systems reform. She is also collaborating on a study of monetary sanctions in Missouri and is part of the Misdemeanor Justice Project. Both projects are supported with funding from the Arnold Foundation and are designed to consider how small contact with the criminal justice system can influence future criminal justice contact, life trajectories, and broader crime trends. She has worked on collaborative projects with the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and the Missouri Highway Patrol. She serves as the current chair of the Division on Corrections and Sentencing for the American Society of Criminology. She is the editor for the Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology and is Associate Editor for Criminal Justice and Behavior. She earned her PhD in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University in 2003 and has worked at UMSL for 16 years.

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Tiffany Izard
Tiffany Izard

Tiffany Izard joined the UMSL community in September 2011 and has served in various positions including as a Financial Aid coordinator and a Retention Specialist. She now is a part of the Department of Nursing and works as the Student Success and Retention Coordinator. Throughout her duration at UMSL she has been the Staff Association Secretary and Vice Chair and now serves as the UMSL Staff Association Chair. She has been honored to receive an excellence in Service to Students award in May 2013 by the National Society of Leadership and Success, The Student Involvement Award in May 2017 by the department of Student Involvement, The Outstanding Professional Award by the UMSL division of Student Affairs in May 2017 and finally the Chancellor’s Award for excellence in September of 2019. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Michigan and her Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ Saint Louis. 

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Jon McGinnis
Jon McGinnis

Jon McGinnis is Professor of classical and medieval philosophy at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ, St. Louis. He is a leading expert in the history of natural philosophy, with a focus on the medieval Arabic-speaking world. In addition to numerous articles, he is the author of Avicenna in the Oxford University Press’ Great Medieval Thinkers Series (2010), translator and editor of Avicenna’s Physics from his encyclopedic work, The Healing (Brigham Young University Press, 2009) and co-translator with David C. Reisman of Classical Arabic Philosophy, An Anthology of Sources (Hackett Publishing Co., 2007). He has been awarded three National Endowment for the Humanities awards, a Mellon grant, a John Templeton Foundation grant and has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He is currently a UM Presidential Engagement Fellow.

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Christopher Miller

Christopher joined the UMSL team in November 2015 as the Director for the Office of Student Enrichment & Achievement (formerly Student Retention Services). In this role, Christopher and his team provide academic support and intervention services to students in their process of degree completion. Guided by the core values of Accountability, Support, and Achievement, Student Enrichment & Achievement offers a student-centered, success-oriented approach to student success through active engagement, developmental advisement, and campus-wide collaboration. Christopher, a native of Houston, TX, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Houston and completed a Master's degree in Higher Education Leadership at Florida Atlantic University. He is a doctoral candidate in the EdD program for STEM Education Enhancement at UMSL and is completing a graduate certificate in Institutional Research.

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Rob Paul
Rob Paul

Dr. Robert Paul obtained his Ph.D. in Biological Psychology from the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. He concurrently completed a re-specialization program in Clinical Psychology at Oklahoma State University and subsequently completed a clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship in Neuropsychology at Brown Medical School.

Dr. Paul's research program is largely focused on understanding the contribution of subcortical brain systems to cognitive and affective behavior. Recently his work has focused on two conditions that provide opportunities to study subcortical brain systems, including subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD) associated with advanced age, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The neuropathology of SIVD and HIV predominately involves both white matter and subcortical gray matter structures. His research studies typically incorporate neuropsychological tests to examine behavioral indices of brain function. These tests are weighted towards domains of function subserved by subcortical brain systems (e.g., information processing speed). Dr. Paul's research program has also increasingly incorporated structural neuroimaging to explore the neuronal integrity of brain systems. The neuroimaging aspects of his research program are conducted in collaboration with co-investigators based at Washington University School of Medicine.

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Kirk Richter
Kirk Richter

Kirk retired in 2012 after 34 years at Sigma-Aldrich Corporation where his most recent positions were Vice President and Treasurer and Interim Chief Financial Officer.  Prior to his career at Sigma-Aldrich, he was employed for 10 years at Arthur Andersen & Co, where his last position was Audit Manager.  He is a Certified Public Accountant.  Kirk is a 1968 graduate of the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ-St. Louis (UMSL) College of Business Administration, with a B.S. in Business Administration.  He is an ex-officio member of the UMSL Alumni Association Governing Board and also serves on the Chancellor’s Council, the Business College Leadership Council, the College of Business Administration Alumni Chapter Board and the Business and Nursing Colleges Capital Campaign Committees.  He previously served on the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ Intercampus Alumni Council.  He also serves on a District Committee for the Boy Scouts in St. Louis, is a member of the Mercy Foundation Board, a Director of a St. Louis based private foundation and is active with his church.

Kirk is married to Maureen Richter (a 1974 UMSL graduate), has a son Dan and daughter in law Kelsey, a daughter Laura, and stepsons Chris, Steve, Dan and Jon Peterson and their respective spouses Annette, Renae, Chiara and Hannah. Kirk and Maureen have 15 grandchildren. In addition to family activities, they enjoy traveling, Cardinals baseball, and a variety of cultural offerings in St. Louis.

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Mckenzie Schuessler
McKenzie Schuessler

McKenzie Schuessler is a senior at the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ-St. Louis, majoring in political science. McKenzie is a student of the Pierre Laclede Honors College, a member of Zeta Tau Alpha fraternity, a UMSL Triton Leader, Peer Mentor and Student Government Association president, and she represents the students in many different capacities. 

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Ann Taylor
Ann Taylor

Dr. Ann Taylor has served as Dean of the College of Education at UMSL since January 2018, where she also served as Interim Dean, and Associate Dean. Nationally she serves as a member dean and mentor for Deans for Impact – an organization committed to transformative quality educator preparation. Ann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the UK, and a Ph.D.  from Washington University in St Louis. Her urban teaching experience, publication record, and varied career across six educational institutions on two continents serve her well as leader of an innovative college providing professional educators and scholars (over 350 K-12 teachers, school administrators, school psychologists, and school and mental health counselors, and researchers) to lead the St. Louis metropolitan area and beyond.

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Sandra Trapani
Sandra Trapani

Sandy Trapani is a Teaching Professor in French and Chair of the Department of Language and Cultural Studies.  She joined the department in 1994.   

After earning her MA in French Literature from the 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ- Columbia, Sandy completed further graduate coursework at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers, France. 

She teaches language, culture, and literature courses and directs the French Summer Language Program in Strasbourg, France.  As a proponent of experiential learning, Sandy has developed service learning courses and immersion weekends in addition to the short-term study abroad program.   With a strong interest in language pedagogy, she has presented at numerous national and regional conferences on curriculum design and language program development and articulation.  Her courses often integrate film and technology as a part of the language acquisition process. 

In addition to teaching, Sandy is a certified OPIc rater for Language Testing International and frequently works with textbook publishers as a reviewer and consultant.   She has enjoyed helping shape the future of language teaching materials through her work as a Subject Matter Expert in French for McGraw Hill and a World Language Development Partner for Cengage Learning.

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Sha-Lai Williams
Sha-Lai Williams

Sha-Lai Williams received her PhD from The Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis in 2013. Her research interest focuses on issues related to race/ethnicity and mental health and utilization of mental health services, particularly among African Americans and emerging adults.  Prior to pursuing her doctoral degree, Dr. Williams gained over 12 years of practice experience in residential care facilities, non-profit agencies, and private practice, providing direct clinical practice to individuals, families, and groups affected by mental illness. She is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Missouri and received her MSW from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her BSW from North Carolina State University. 

As an associate professor in the School of Social Work at 91Ï㽶¶ÌÊÓƵ – St. Louis, Dr. Williams has teaches courses in Social Work Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups as well as Human Behavior in the Social Environment. Teaching these courses utilizes her expertise as an accomplished facilitator of several nationally recognized training curricula and her experience teaching Masters-level courses at The Brown School. In addition, Dr. Williams is an active participant in the School of Social Work, as well as the UMSL and surrounding community.  
 

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Reviewed 2019-10-23