William B. Lawson, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Lawson received his medical degree from the University of Chicago and did his residency at Stanford University Medical Center. He completed a fellowship in clinical psychopharmacology at the National Institute of Mental Health intramural program.

He has a long-standing concern about ethnic disparities in mental health treatment and has been an outspoken advocate for access to services for the severely mentally ill. Among his many honors, Dr. Lawson' was named as one of “America's Leading Black Doctors" by Black Enterprise Magazine; received the APA Jeanne Spurlock Award in 2002; received a Multicultural Workplace Award from the Veterans Administration; and was named as a national mentor by the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill.

Dr. Lawson was Chair of the APA Committee of Tellers, Treasurer of the American Orthopsychiatric Society, and member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the National Depression and Manic-Depressive Society and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He served as Chair of the Section of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the National Medical Association and is Past President of the Black Psychiatrists of America. He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and was the recipient of the Solomon Carter Fuller Award in 2014.