William Lawson, MD, PhD, DFAPA

Dr. William Lawson, MD, PhD., DFAPA is Associate Dean for Health Disparities at the Dell Medical School and Director of Community Health Programs and Professor at Huston-Tillotson University, where he leads the Sandra Joy Anderson Community Health and Wellness Center.

He is also UT Austin's institutional representative for the Health Disparities Education, Awareness, Research and Training (HDEART) Consortium.

EDUCATION and TRAINING

• He received a BS in psychology from Howard University,

• He received an MA from the University of Virginia, and
• Dr. Lawson received a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire
• Dr. Lawson received his MD from the Pritzker School of Medicine University of Chicago,
• He did his residency at Stanford University and a fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health.
• He has held faculty positions at the University of Illinois, Urbana, University of California, Irvine, Vanderbilt University, University of Arkansas, and recently left after 15 years as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Howard University
• He is also Editor in Chief at the Journal of the National Medical Association

PREVIOUS SENIOR-LEVEL POSITIONS He has held numerous senior positions and received national recognition including past President of the DC chapter of Mental Health America, Past President of the Washington Psychiatric Society, past Chair of the Section of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the National Medical Association, and past president of the Black Psychiatrists of America, received the American Psychiatric Foundation Award for Advancing Minority Mental Health, the 2014 Solomon Carter Fuller Award by the American Psychiatric Association, the Sigma XI the scientific honor society and Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honor society, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Exemplary Psychiatrist Award and Outstanding Psychologist Award. the Jeanne Spurlock Award from the American Psychiatric Association, and he E.Y. Williams Clinical Scholar of Distinction Award from the NMA.

PUBLICATIONS Dr. Lawson has over 200 publications and has continuously received federal, industry, and foundation funding to address mental and substance abuse disparities.

FUNDING Dr. Lawson has received state, federal, and foundation support for projects to reduce ethnic disparities, pharmacological research and to develop new and effective treatments

Research Interests & Publications

• Kumari S, Manalai P, Leong S, Wooditch A, Mansoor M, Lawson WB. Factors associated with non-adherence to Buprenorphine-naloxone among opioid dependent African-Americans: A retrospective chart review. Am J Addict. 2016 Jan 8.
• Lawson W, Johnston S, Karson C, Offord S, Docherty J, Eramo A, Kamat S, Blanchette CM, Carson W, Nasrallah HA. Racial differences in antipsychotic use: Claims database analysis of Medicaid-insured patients with schizophrenia. Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2015 Nov 27.
• Anand A, Koller DL, Lawson WB, Gershon ES, Nurnberger JI; BiGS Collaborative. Genetic and childhood trauma interaction effect on age of onset in bipolar disorder: An exploratory analysis. J. Affect Disord. 2013 Aug 11.
• Cross-Disorder Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, et al. Genetic relationship between five psychiatric disorders estimated from genome-wide SNPs. Clin Orthop Relat Res. Epub 2015 Feb 27.
• Gara MA, Vega WA, Arndt S, Escamilla M, Fleck DE, Lawson WB, Lesser I, Neighbors HW, Wilson DR, Arnold LM, Strakowski SM. Influence of patient race and ethnicity on clinical assessment in patients with affective disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2012 Jun.
• Lawson WB, Herman BK, Loebel A, Lazariciu I, Malik M. Ziprasidone in Black patients with schizophrenia: analysis of four short-term, double-blind studies. CNS Spectr. 2009 Sep 14.
• Whitley R, Lawson WB. The psychiatric rehabilitation of African Americans with severe mental illness. Psychiatr Serv. 2010 May 6.