A. Lynn Williams

A. Lynn Williams was inducted into the College of Applied Human Sciences Hall of Fame in the fall of 2025. She was previously inducted into the College of Education and Human Services Hall of Fame in 2004.

Williams earned a Bachelor of Science degree in speech pathology and audiology from West Virginia University in 1978 and a Master of Science degree in 1980 from WVU’s College of Human Resources and Education. She completed a Ph.D. in speech and hearing sciences at Indiana University in 1988.

In 1983, she established the Speech-Language Pathology Program at Appalachian Regional Hospital in Beckley, W.Va. Her work there was recognized by the American Speech and Hearing Foundation with the Award for Outstanding Clinical Achievement. Her early clinical focus on phonological treatment for children with speech sound disorders became the foundation for her later academic research.

Williams later joined the faculty at East Tennessee State University, where she has served in multiple roles, including Professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences. Her research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, led to the development of the multiple oppositions intervention model and a phonological intervention taxonomy. She has authored or contributed to more than 175 publications and presentations and written multiple textbooks in the field.

Her national service includes editorial roles with Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools and the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. She served on the Board of Directors for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), including a term as Vice President for Academic Affairs in Speech-Language Pathology (2016–2018), and was elected ASHA President for 2021. She has been named an ASHA Fellow, a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice, and an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.