About
John A. Williams III, Ph.D.

Welcome to the professional webpage of Dr. John A. Williams, III. Raised in the small urban town of East St. Louis, Illinois, Dr. Williams' education and professional background has helped him to become an internationally known scholar on race, school discipline, multiculturalism, and teacher preparation. Obtaining his bachelors and masters degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his doctorate degree at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a focus on Curriculum and Instruction, Dr. Williams has worked with a number of school districts, youth programs, juvenile justice stakeholders, and policymakers to disrupt, dismantle, and deconfigure practices, policies, and approaches that support the school-to-prison pipeline for Black and Brown youth in the United States. Dr. Williams is current an Assistant Professor of Multicultural/Urban Education at Texas A&M University at College Station.

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After spending a number of years working the in the Urbana-Champaign community in spaces such as residential facilities, the Urban League of Champaign County, and local mentoring programs for select non-profit groups, Dr. Williams went on to obtain his master's degree in Education Policy Studies with an emphasis on race, culture, and policy development. It was at this time that Dr. Williams worked within the University of Illinois, TRIO program which targeted minoritized and historically disadvantaged youth who were seeking the means and information to attend college after high school. Dr. Williams and colleagues successfully serviced over 500 youth in the Central Illinois area with services such as ACT preparation activities, parent informational meetings, mentoring, tutoring and providing access to colleges through summer college trips to a Historically Black College and University, and a Historically White Institutions in Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis Missouri. Transitioning back to his hometown of East St. Louis, Illinois, Dr. Williams worked in the St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center as the Program Coordinator of Vocational, Educational, and Recreational Activities.

Being the coordinator for the evening reporting center and other court diversion programs, Dr. Williams was afforded the opportunity to engage with multiple juvenile justice, education, and non-profit organizations to reduce the number of youth entering the detention center for minor offenses. Instead seeking to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline from the end, Dr. Williams then decided to head back to graduate school to obtain his doctorate, centering his studies around education, urban education, restorative practices, and culturally relevant teachers in the U.S.

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