Mental Health Programs

About CMHS

Mildred Holmes-Williams, M.S.W.
Branch Chief
Special Programs Development Branch

Ms. Williams comes to the Special Programs Development Branch of SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services, Division of Prevention, Traumatic Stress and Special Programs, with more than 20 years of experience in the mental health field. She began her career as a therapist in a small community mental health center in Hamden, Connecticut. After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1975, Ms. Williams attended Howard University School of Social Work, in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1978.

Ms. Williams began her specialty in mental health care with her earliest clinical practicum assignment at the Woodburn Community Mental Health Center in Fairfax, Virginia. She continued her mental health care focus at the Pierce Warwick Adoptions Agency in Washington, D.C., where she identified families for hard-to-place children, and later worked for a Community Support Demonstration Project, providing clinical social work services to adults with serious mental illnesses.

Ms. Williams also worked for 4 years as the coordinator of the Physical Abuse Team at the Children's Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; served 9 years as Director of the District of Columbia's Commission on Mental Health Services, North Community Mental Health Center; and worked as the Director of the Arlington County Mental Health Center in Virginia. Later, during her appointment as the Chief of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services in Montgomery County, Maryland, Ms. Williams developed and successfully implemented a model for the transition of an outpatient mental health system of clinics to the private sector, while maintaining continuity of care for consumers.

Ms. Williams has been instrumental in ensuring the delivery of mental health services to ethnic and cultural minority groups, particularly Hispanic and Vietnamese populations. In collaboration with the Montgomery County Police and Corrections Department, Ms. Williams conceptualized and provided oversight for a mental health program to meet the needs of incarcerated persons who need treatment and other mental health supports until their release. She also has worked to support the provision of mental health services within school settings and to improve the availability of mental health services for the homeless population.