Dr. Oliver J. Williams2Oliver Williams
Exceutive Director

Oliver J. Williams, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community, and a Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, in St. Paul. He is also the Director of the Safe Return Initiative that addresses the issues of prisoner reentry and domestic violence. He has worked in the field of domestic violence for more than thirty years. Dr. Williams has been a clinical practitioner; working in mental health, substance abuse, child welfare, sexual assault, and domestic violence. He has worked in battered women’s shelters, developed curricula for batterers’ intervention programs and facilitated counseling groups in these programs. He has provided training across the United States and abroad on research and service-delivery surrounding partner abuse. He has been appointed to National Advisory Committees and task forces for the Center for Disease Control, US Department of Justice, US Office on Women’s Health, and the US Department of Education. He has been a board member of various domestic violence and human service organization including shelter programs and National Domestic violence Hotline. In 2000, he was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Domestic Violence by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services and US Attorney General. In 2009 participated in a Roundtable with the US Attorney General on issues related to fatherhood and domestic violence and participated in a Whitehouse Roundtable on Fatherhood and issues related to Domestic Violence. He has conducted training for the US Military Family Advocacy programs both in the United States and Abroad. Dr. Williams’ extensive research and publications in scholarly journals and books have centered on creating service delivery strategies to reduce violent behavior. Dr. Williams received a bachelor’s degree in social work from Michigan State University; a Masters in Social Work from Western Michigan University; a Masters in Public Health and a PH.D in Social Work both from the University of Pittsburgh.