Williams is the Journalism School's director of special projects and innovation. He was an associate professor at the University of Maryland before deciding to return to KU. He has two journalism degrees from the KU School of Journalism, and taught visual communication and photojournalism here from 1988 to 1994. Since then he has been an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, Ohio University and Maryland. He was director of Internet publishing for a Wisconsin publishing company and has held various positions on newspapers in Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon.