Dr. Monnica T Williams is a Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa, where she holds the Canada Research Chair for Mental Health Innovation and Equity. She also maintains a cross-appointment as Professor in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. Dr. Williams serves as an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute of Mental Health Research at the Royal Ottawa Hospital and is a Research Affiliate at the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Dr. Williams completed her undergraduate studies at MIT and UCLA, and received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia. Prior to her position at the University of Ottawa, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania for four years, followed by five years at the University of Louisville where she served as Director of the Center for Mental Health Disparities, and three years at the University of Connecticut with joint appointments in Psychological Sciences and Psychiatry. Dr. Williams' research focuses on mental health disparities among racialized communities through multiple critical lenses. Her work spans culturally-informed therapy development, racial trauma assessment and treatment, microaggressions and discrimination studies, psychedelic-assisted therapies, and obsessive-compulsive disorder research with a cultural perspective. She has pioneered the Healing Racial Trauma Protocol, a 12-session CBT-based treatment specifically designed for racial trauma, and her research examines how institutional systems of bias affect mental health outcomes across diverse populations. APA Division 12 Samuel M. Turner Early Career Award for Distinguished Contribution to Diversity in Clinical Psychology (2015) Canada Research Chair for Mental Health Innovation and Equity Dr. Williams currently supervises five graduate students working on BIPOC mental health and psychedelic research. She has secured substantial federal, local, and foundation grants to support her psychological research, particularly in racial trauma, OCD, and cultural adaptation of treatments. As co-founder of the International OCD Foundation's Diversity Advisory Board and editorial board member for multiple academic journals, she actively shapes the field's direction toward greater inclusivity. Dr. Williams leads two research laboratories: the Laboratory for Psychedelic Clinical Research and the Laboratory for Mental Health Disparities. These labs focus on developing culturally-informed treatments and studying the impact of racism on mental health through rigorous clinical trials and community-based research. Her teams investigate the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies for marginalized populations while developing evidence-based protocols for treating racial trauma and OCD in diverse communities.
