2024_Bridgeway_Program_Dinner_Final

2024 Distinguished Service to the Community

Mark T. Williams, BSN, RN-BC 2024 Distinguished Service to the Community

Before Mark T. Williams arrived as a Board Trustee at Bridgeway, he already had more than 40 years in the field of psychiatric nursing. Mark’s experiences included adult and adolescent inpatient services, psychiatric emergency services, and outpatient services as a staff nurse, as well as an extensive period of service in the State Psychiatric Hospital system.

“In 2010, after devoting literally half of my adult life in the service of folks diagnosed with mental health conditions, I retired from my profession as a psychiatric nurse. I began to search for ways to give back to the profession that I loved and that had given me so much. My search ended when I found Bridgeway. By the time I found Bridgeway, this organization had already enjoyed a solid foundation in the mental health community for several decades…” – Mark Williams Once he retired, Mark’s work with the mentally ill expanded to the areas of health and wellness. His work of identifying and bridging the barriers that people with serious mental illness face when trying to access primary health care services helped Bridgeway launch its initial small steps into integrated care. Those small steps have led to meaningful partnerships, and the Center for Integrated Behavioral Health Care in Hoboken. The theme of social justice runs deeply through everything Mark does. He has walked and marched and protested more times than his wife Kate can count! Mark has been gifted with two daughters who have enthusiastically embraced the doctrine of social justice and passionately walk in their father’s footsteps. Whether its ensuring that people challenged by mental illness are linked to primary healthcare, participating in communities of color, or fighting to eliminate the stigma so often associated with a diagnosis of a mental illness, Mark simply can’t resist being a champion for the cause of justice. In 2017, Mark launched a Stigma Free Zone chapter in his community of North Plainfield and one year later in the County of Somerset. On any given day, Mark can be found speaking as an advocate for parity in access to behavioral and mental health services for minority communities. Mark is a member of the New Jersey Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma, serving on the Learning Cooperative Sub-Committee. He is a proud member of the Somerset County Democratic Committee Black Caucus. Mark currently serves as President of the NAMI NJ Board of Trustees, and as Vice Chair for the Board of Trustees of Woods Services in Langhorne PA.