Carolyn L. Williams, PhD

Dr. Williams is an emeritus professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral work was completed at the University of Georgia in Clinical Psychology with a co‐major in Child and Family Development.

She has over 30 years of experience in research, practice, and teaching about the MMPI, MMPI-2, and MMPI-A. She is a co-author of the MMPI-A and many of its scales, including the Content Scales, Content Component Scales, the Alcohol‐Drug Problem Scales (ACK and PRO), and PSY‐5 Scales. With Dr. Butcher, she developed the widely used computerized system, the Minnesota Report: Adolescent Interpretive System, and wrote the textbook, Essentials of MMPI-2 and MMPI-A Interpretation. In 2011, the American Psychological Association published the comprehensive, A Beginner’s Guide to the MMPI-A, also co‐authored with James Butcher.

In addition to her work on the MMPI instruments, Professor Williams is a co-creator of Project Northland, published by the Hazelden Foundation. Project Northland is one of the few prevention programs in use in American schools with scientific evidence that its programs actually reduce alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use by adolescents. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) funded Project Northland research from1990 to 2007.

Dr. Williams was named a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 5: Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics) and a Charter Member and Diplomate of the American Board of Assessment Psychology in 1993.