Renee Cunningham-Williams is a leading expert in the epidemiology and comorbidity of problem gambling, substance use/abuse, and mental and behavioral health, particularly among African-American youth and emerging adults. Her social work experience includes work with teen mothers, adult probationers/parolees, and adult survivors of abuse.
Cunningham-Williams has worked seamlessly across disciplinary boundaries in social work into public health, psychiatric epidemiology/nosology, and biostatistics. Her diverse experience has led to award-winning, high impact, NIH- and privately-funded research, including work to develop diagnostic assessments for gambling disorder. A passionate teacher and mentor, Cunningham-Williams infuses innovation into her research and evaluation courses, as well as to the NIDA-funded Transdisciplinary Training in Addictions Research (TranSTAR) predoctoral and postdoctoral program she directs.
In addition, she draws on more than 25 years of administrative leadership in her scholarship, teaching and service, with an emphasis on doctoral education quality and capacity-building for early- to mid-career scholars as well as underrepresented minority scholars. Her service extends to the US federal and Singapore governments, as well as university initiatives, editorial boards, and national elected boards, such as the Society for Social Work and Research, the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education, among others.
