In Memoriam: Dr. David L. Williams, a Leader in Behavioral Health for Northwest Arkansas

From his early career as a Texas minister to the nearly five-decades he spent as a leader in Northwest Arkansas behavioral health, David L. Williams III, PhD, of Fayetteville dedicated his life to helping others find solace and support when they needed it most. Williams died this week at age 84, but the legacy he leaves behind will continue to help Arkansans.

Williams came to Northwest Arkansas in 1977 to serve as president and CEO of Ozark Guidance Center, a nonprofit behavioral health center now known as Arisa Health. Over the next 30 years in that role, he adopted new and innovative practices to improve quality of care such as assertive community treatment, intensive family intervention, jail-based services, and supportive housing programs. Williams also worked as an advocate to advance the treatment of people with mental illness in the state.

The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare honored Williams in 2008 with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Williams also received the Stockburger Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mental Health Council and the University of Arkansas’s Honorary Social Worker of the Year Award. In 2021, the ACHI Health Policy Board honored Williams with the Dr. Tom Bruce Arkansas Health Impact Award. Upon accepting the award, Williams said his dream was to “make community mental health services accessible, of great quality, and affordable.”