Charmaine Williams is a registered social worker, an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean Academic at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. She has been practicing in hospital-based and community-based mental health for twenty years and she teaches courses in the areas of mental health, direct practice, social justice and diversity. Dr. Williams’s program of research includes study of the experiences of individuals and families living with mental illness and access to mental health care services for marginalized populations. Current projects are looking at life after diagnosis for people diagnosed with schizophrenia and mental health, access to mental health care for lesbian, bisexual and transgendered women, and mental health and human rights consequences of living under conditions of LGBT-based discrimination.