2023 LEGENDS OF HEALTHCARE
Dr. Barry Williams
Barry N. Williams, MD is a psychiatrist certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is also certified in Addiction Medicine by the American Board of Preventive Medicine and by the American Board of Addictive Medicine. He was born in York, South Carolina to Nathaniel PJ Williams and Dorothy Williams. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Winston- Salem, NC due to his father’s new job at RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company. Dr Williams was educated at Kimberly Park Elementary School and Paisley Middle School. Teachers noticed his academic talents and recommended him to the members of the Urban League who worked in liaison with preparatory schools. He was accepted
to Philips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH, where he graduated in 1975 and began his college career at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. His goal was to complete his pre-medical education at Amherst College and return to his hometown of Winston-Salem. He was accepted to Bowman Gray School of Medicine, now Wake Forest Medical Center, and began medical school in 1979. As he reconnected with church and community, he met Halimena Creque, another aspiring physician from Winston-Salem and the two wed in April 1983. Dr. Williams graduated from Bowman Gray School of Medicine in May 1983 and began his residency in the Department of Psychiatry of Baptist Hospital in July 1983. Dr. Creque graduated from Bowman Gray Medical School in May 1984 and began residency in the Department of Psychiatry at Baptist Hospital. In June 1987, Dr. Williams became the first African American to complete the Psychiatric residency program at Bowman Gray School of Medicine. Over the next 36 years, Dr. Williams dedicated his skills and knowledge to a wide range of populations coping with psychiatric illness and addiction. Early in his career Dr. Williams recognized that addictive disease was a pervasive and under addressed illness. He was one of the first in the state to develop private practice, outpatient opioid treatment programs (OTP). After establishing The Williams Clinic in Winston- Salem in 1989, now Family Behavioral Health, he established the Wilkes Counseling Center in North Wilkesboro, NC. Dr. Williams was also a National Health Scholarship recipient. The dearth of psychiatric services in rural North Carolina compelled Dr. Williams to also work in community mental health as Medical Director of Surry Yadkin Mental Health Authority which subsequently became Crossroads Mental Health. Concurrently he became the first Medical Director of Medicorp Recovery Network, now Novant Recovery Network. At one point he was the Medical Director of 2 residential addictive disease facilities ARCA, The Bridge at Brookstown and Insight Human Services. During his 15-year leadership as Medical Director of Insight, the opioid treatment program tripled in size. Currently he and his wife Dr. Creque operate the first and only local African American private psychiatric practice with programs in addiction medicine, behavioral neurology, and psychiatry. of
HEALTHCARE
in EAST WINSTON
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