Leslie Williams: Addressing the stigma of substance use disorder

Leslie Williams, assistant professor in the School of Public Health, named 2024-25 Rising Star in the Clinical Sciences. (Photo: Martin Hernandez/UIC)

In fifth grade, Leslie Williams read the 1980s autobiography of Ryan White, a 13-year-old Indiana resident whose story of contracting HIV through a blood transfusion and facing discrimination when he returned to school helped galvanize public education about HIV and AIDS and the fight against the disease.

Williams was so moved by White's experience of being ostracized by his community that she wanted to learn more about the social stigma surrounding the disease. Years later, as an undergraduate at The Ohio State University in 2006, Williams traveled to South Africa for a short study abroad focused on South African history, policy and culture. She learned about barriers to HIV care by visiting an orphanage for children whose parents had died of HIV.

These experiences led her to pursue a doctorate in psychology and social intervention from New York University. From there, her career focus was clear: she would conduct global research in public health.

"I believe that quality health care is a human right, and that it applies to all people no matter what kind of health challenges or issues they have," Williams said.

In 2019, she joined UIC as an assistant professor in community health sciences at the School of Public Health. Most of her research focuses on addressing stigma associated with HIV and substance use disorder and the barriers to health care those stigmas create. Williams' interest in substance use disorder and the stigma surrounding it stemmed from her interest in HIV.

"People who inject drugs are disproportionately impacted by HIV and, in addition, people who use drugs are also very stigmatized in societies all over the world," Williams said.

Last year, Williams received federal grant awards totaling $6.9 million to test the efficacy of two intervention projects to reduce stigma and increase social support for people with HIV or substance use disorder, through connections with their peers. Those aims, in turn, could increase access to care and potentially save lives.

Roughly half the total funding came from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct a trial of an expanded social network approach to HIV testing in South Africa. Williams designed this intervention to help increase access to HIV testing for anyone reluctant to get such a test due to stigma. Her project even got the attention of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which invited her team to submit a funding proposal to expand their work in South Africa.

In Chicago, and with a $3.7 million award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Williams developed a peer-support intervention to reduce the risk of opioid overdose among older adults on the West Side, where there have been high rates of fatal overdose among older men. The aim is to reduce substance use stigma and increase social support for people who use drugs while also teaching their friends and families how to help them access services that could prevent overdose, and how to administer naloxone to reverse overdose.

As a result of her research, Williams hopes to answer whether having peers communicate more about stigmatized health conditions can reduce stigma enough to meaningfully remove it as a barrier to health services.

"When I hear about people being denied care and/or dignity as they deal with health challenges, this continues to drive me to being an advocate for and creating change for them," Williams said.