Monnica Williams, Ph.D., is the featured speaker at the Roth Lecture on June 18 presented by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center. The virtual presentation begins at 8 a.m. with Williams presenting “Eliminating Race-Based Mental Health Disparities.”

Williams is a board-certified, licensed clinical psychologist, specializing in cognitive-behavioral therapies. She is a full-tenured professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa; Canada research chair for culture and mental health disparities and director of the Laboratory for Culture and Mental Health Disparities.

She completed her undergraduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (electrical engineering/biotechnology) and University of California, Los Angeles (psychology). She received her master's and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia, where she conducted research in the areas of obsessive-compulsive disorder, tests and measurement and ethnic differences. She completed her clinical internship at McGill University Health Centre, Montreal General Hospital.

The Roth Lecture is named after the department's first chair, William Roth, and is held annually as part of the department's graduation recognition activities.