As a survivor of poverty and discrimination, GSSW Dean James Herbert Williams (on right in photo, with Chancellor Robert Coombe) aims to increase financial assistance for GSSW students so that they aren't dissuaded from pursuing a career in community service.
Dean Williams has lived through the perils and possibilities offered an African-American man in American society. A strong internal drive and a supportive network of family and friends have led to academic success that he refuses to take for granted.
"When you don't grow up in privilege," he says, "you never assume that you've arrived."
Williams, who became GSSW's dean in 2007, grew up in rural North Carolina. He was
one of seven children of a sharecropper father and a mother who was one of the few
African-American women at the time to earn a high school diploma. It was she who instilled
in her children the importance of education. All seven went on to attend college.
Williams' parents died when he was 10 years old; his grandmother took over child-rearing
duties, and uncles and adult neighbors provided mentoring.
Focusing on people
Williams began his college career as a chemistry major but soon gravitated to social
work, which was a profession that was more accessible to African-Americans and more
in line with his desire to help disadvantaged youths like those he had known growing
up.
"There was something about working with people that was a lot more interesting and
fulfilling," Williams says.
He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in sociology and social work from Grambling
State University in Louisiana, followed by an MSW from Smith College in Massachusetts,
an MPA from the University of Colorado and a PhD in social welfare from the University
of Washington. His research and scholarship is focused on juvenile delinquency, youth
violence and African-American families.
A natural leader
His natural leadership ability propelled Williams to positions of increasing responsibility
in academia, including assistant to the chancellor for urban community initiatives
and then associate dean for academic affairs at the George Warren Brown School of
Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.
Before assuming the responsibilities of dean at GSSW, he was the Foundation Professor
of Youth and Diversity at Arizona State University.
University of Denver administrators expect Williams to provide the same level of leadership
and scholarship he did in his previous positions.
"DU's Graduate School of Social Work is poised to make great strides in social work
during the next decade," says Provost Gregg Kvistad, "and now it has an extraordinary
new administrator and faculty member."
Supporting faculty and students
Williams insists, however, that he is only part of the equation. A school of social
work should be known for its faculty and students more than for its dean, he says.
Toward that end, Williams is developing GSSW's endowment to provide support for faculty
and students.
He wants GSSW's talented faculty to have the resources necessary to be leaders in
research and scholarship. And he wants to increase financial assistance for students
so that those embarking on a career in the relatively low-paying field of social work
aren't dissuaded from community service and social justice by the prospect of substantial
debt.
