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A physician of Stedfast Psychiatry, Florida and South CarolinaNew patients: (561) 234-4467
Dr. Eric R. Williams, MDBOARD-CERTIFIED CHILD, ADOLESCENT AND ADULT PSYCHIATRIST
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About Dr. Eric R. Williams

Dr. Eric R. Williams is a board-certified psychiatrist and child and adolescent psychiatrist practicing with Stedfast Psychiatry in Lexington, South Carolina. A Wake Forest graduate who trained at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, he has served on its faculty since 2006 and is Associate Dean for Student Affairs. He treats ADHD, anxiety, depression and life transitions in patients ages 5 to 64, and is lead author of Kaplan and Sadock's Study Guide and Self-Examination Review in Psychiatry.

Dr. Eric R. Williams

Training

Dr. Eric R. Williams completed his undergraduate work at Wake Forest University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, magna cum laude, in 1996. He stayed at Wake Forest for medical school and received his MD from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 2000.

He then moved to Columbia, South Carolina, for residency. He completed his general psychiatry residency at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and Palmetto Health Alliance (now Prisma Health) from 2000 to 2003, where he was named Palmetto Health Alliance Resident of the Year in 2003. He continued at the same program for a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry from 2003 to 2005, and was recognized as Child Psychiatry Resident of the Year and with the Child Psychiatry Medical Student Educator Award in 2005. During training he was selected as an American College of Psychiatry Child PRITE Fellow (2004) and as an APA AstraZeneca Minority Fellow (2002).

Dr. Williams is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry and in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He holds active medical licenses in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Career

Dr. Williams has spent his entire post-training career in South Carolina. He joined the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia in 2006, directly after fellowship, and has remained on the faculty since.

His clinical work has been unusually broad for a child and adolescent psychiatrist. He has worked in juvenile justice settings, in a program for children and adolescents who experienced sexual trauma, on an inpatient adolescent unit, and in an outpatient adolescent autism clinic. He served as a psychiatrist at USC Counseling and Psychiatric Services, treating college students at the university's Center for Health and Well-Being. For 13 years he has been part of the Prisma Health Midlands Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team, which cares for adults with serious mental illness in the community rather than in a hospital. He also practices telepsychiatry and has maintained a small private practice.

His hospital affiliations include Prisma Health Richland Hospital, Prisma Health Baptist Hospital and the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute in Columbia.

At Stedfast Psychiatry he sees children, teens and adults in Lexington, South Carolina, and is available by telehealth to patients across the state, including those connected to the practice's Goose Creek, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island offices.

Clinical focus

Dr. Williams sees patients from age 5 to 64, with a particular focus on children, teens and young adults. The conditions he treats most often are ADHD, anxiety disorders and depression, along with the difficulties that come with life transitions: starting school, changing schools, leaving home for college, and entering the workforce.

His two board certifications let him follow a patient across the ages where care is often fragmented. A child he first evaluates for ADHD at age 8 does not need to change psychiatrists at 18. A college student he treats for anxiety can keep seeing him after graduation. Parents of younger children tend to describe his style as relaxed and collaborative, and teens tend to notice that he talks to them directly rather than only to the adults in the room.

His years in college mental health and his current role working with medical students inform how he approaches young adults in particular: he is accustomed to high-achieving patients who have never had a psychiatric diagnosis and are not sure they belong in a psychiatrist's office.

Leadership and teaching

Dr. Williams serves as Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia. He was appointed Assistant Dean of Student Affairs in 2018 after a national search and was later promoted to Associate Dean. Before that, he directed Introduction to Clinical Medicine I, the course that teaches first-year medical students how to interview and examine patients, from 2013 to 2018. He received the school's Teacher of the Year award in 2007 and the Chairman's Award in 2011, and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 2019.

He has been deeply involved in how psychiatry is examined and taught nationally. He has served as a board examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and has written questions for the USMLE, PRITE, FOCUS and ABPN editorial boards since 2003.

In organized psychiatry, he is a past President of the South Carolina Psychiatric Association, where he has also served as Vice President, Public Affairs Liaison and Newsletter Editor, and he remains on its Executive Board. He is Vice President of the South Carolina Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the state's regional organization of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. At the American Psychiatric Association he chairs the SAMHSA Minority Fellowship Selection Committee (2023 to present), served on the Scientific Program Committee from 2022 to 2024, where he was identified as chair in a 2024 Psychiatric Times byline, and served on the Membership Committee from 2019 to 2021. He was a candidate for APA Secretary in the 2025 national election.

In 2024 he received the APA Jeanne Spurlock Minority Fellowship Achievement Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award presented jointly by the South Carolina Psychiatric Association and the South Carolina Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Research and writing

Dr. Williams is the lead author of Kaplan and Sadock's Study Guide and Self-Examination Review in Psychiatry, 10th edition (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2023), written with Lindsay Moskowitz, Robert Boland and Marcia Verduin. The book is the question-and-answer review volume in the Kaplan and Sadock series, used by residents preparing for board examinations.

His peer-reviewed writing centers on assessment in medical education. He co-authored "Multiple-Choice Tests: A-Z in Best Writing Practices" in Psychiatric Clinics of North America (2021) and "Writing multiple-choice questions" in Academic Psychiatry (2010). In May 2024 he co-wrote a Psychiatric Times commentary on the APA Annual Meeting from the perspective of the Scientific Program Committee.

In October 2025 he appeared as a guest on the Work and Wellness with Dr. Sharon podcast (Episode 25, "America's Mental Health Crisis with Dr. Eric Williams").

Outside the office

Dr. Williams has taught group fitness classes for 23 years and leads a monthly cardio class in the courtyard of the USC School of Medicine for students and staff. Away from work he enjoys board games, cruising and economics podcasts.

Timeline

  • 1996BA in Psychology, magna cum laude, Wake Forest University
  • 2000MD, Wake Forest University School of Medicine; begins psychiatry residency at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and Palmetto Health Alliance
  • 2003Completes psychiatry residency; named Palmetto Health Alliance Resident of the Year; begins child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship
  • 2005Completes child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship; Child Psychiatry Resident of the Year and Child Psychiatry Medical Student Educator Award
  • 2006Joins the faculty of the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia
  • 2007Teacher of the Year, USC School of Medicine
  • 2013Becomes course director for Introduction to Clinical Medicine I (through 2018)
  • 2018Appointed Assistant Dean of Student Affairs after a national search; later promoted to Associate Dean
  • 2019Inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society
  • 2023Publishes Kaplan and Sadock's Study Guide and Self-Examination Review in Psychiatry, 10th edition, as lead author
  • 2024APA Jeanne Spurlock Minority Fellowship Achievement Award; Lifetime Achievement Award from the South Carolina Psychiatric Association and South Carolina Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
  • 2025Candidate for Secretary of the American Psychiatric Association; guest on Work and Wellness with Dr. Sharon, Episode 25

Memberships and leadership

  • American Psychiatric Association (Chair, SAMHSA Minority Fellowship Selection Committee, 2023 to present; Scientific Program Committee, 2022 to 2024; Membership Committee, 2019 to 2021)
  • South Carolina Psychiatric Association (past President; Executive Board member)
  • South Carolina Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Vice President)
  • Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society

Awards and honors

  • APA Jeanne Spurlock Minority Fellowship Achievement Award, American Psychiatric Association (2024)
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, South Carolina Psychiatric Association and South Carolina Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2024)
  • Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (2019)
  • Chairman's Award, USC School of Medicine (2011)
  • Teacher of the Year, USC School of Medicine (2007)
  • Child Psychiatry Resident of the Year (2005)
  • Child Psychiatry Medical Student Educator Award (2005)
  • American College of Psychiatry Child PRITE Fellow (2004)
  • Palmetto Health Alliance Resident of the Year (2003)
  • APA AstraZeneca Minority Fellow (2002)

Affiliations

  • Stedfast Psychiatry, Lexington, SC
  • University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia, Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science (Associate Dean for Student Affairs; Clinical Associate Professor)
  • Prisma Health Midlands Assertive Community Treatment team
  • Prisma Health Richland Hospital, Columbia, SC
  • Prisma Health Baptist Hospital, Columbia, SC
  • William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute, Columbia, SC

Credentials you can verify

Media and speaking

See Dr. Eric R. Williams

New patients are usually seen within one to two weeks, in person at Lexington or by video. Call the office or request an appointment online.

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