Brian Williams is a professor of public policy in the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.  Williams is also a Visiting Scholar and Advisory Board Member for UVA’s Center for Public Safety & Justice. 

Williams joined UVA after previous faculty appointments at Florida State University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Georgia (UGA), as well as administrative appointments at UGA and Vanderbilt. His research centers on issues related to demographic diversity, local law enforcement, and public governance, with special attention devoted to the co-production of public safety and public order. He is interested in understanding how the assorted experiences and perceptions of officers and members of the public affect the formation and functioning of their working partnerships to understand and mitigate or address community problems. He is currently involved in research projects that study how law enforcement professionals experience and manage work related trauma that they encounter during their daily routine.  

Williams is the author of Citizen Perspectives on Community Policing: A Case Study in Athens, GA (State University of New York Press) and has published in leading journals in public administration, public management, community psychology, education, and police studies. His research and engagement efforts have resulted in an appointment to serve on the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Trust Advisory Board as well as invitations to speak or participate in various gatherings, including the National Policy Summit on Community-Police Relations hosted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in 2014; the Trending Issues in Policing Summit hosted by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in 2016; the Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) Agencies Program Development Roundtable hosted by the National Institute of Justice in 2016;  the Kettering Foundation’s Research Day in February of 2017; the Expert Review Panel for the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) Survey hosted by United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2018; and the 50th Anniversary of the Minnowbrook Conference hosted by Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 2018.

Williams has taught courses on public administration and democracy, public organizations, public management, ethics, co-production of public services, urban policy and administration, and human services administration and have served as a consultant, trainer or subject matter expert with police departments or public safety related agencies and other governmental and non-governmental entities. He has been recognized as a service-learning faculty fellow and was honored in 2012 to be designated as a Kavli Fellow during the National Academy of Sciences 24th Annual Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium, hosted on the campus of the University of California in Irvine, CA. 

Over the course of his career, Williams has served his institutions, schools or colleges, and departments of affiliation in various capacities. Similarly, he has provided service to his academic field, scholarly community, the community-at-large, and the law enforcement community at the local, state and federal levels.  Recently, he completed his three-year term on the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA) for the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA).