Dayton Ann Williams, MBA, PMP®, MSW

Sgt. Tyrell Williams, USMC combat veteran, returned home from his third and final tour in Iraq. Less than 90 days after arriving in the States, an unknown perpetrator tragically ended his life in a hit-and-run. Forever loved and never forgotten, a veteran is selected annually to sit in Ty’s place through an endowed scholarship Dayton established for her eldest son at The University of Texas at Austin in his honor and memory: https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/veterans/williams.php.

Although Tyrell was only briefly with us, it was clear he was not yet all the way home. Over the years, veterans and family members sharing their stories of pain, challenges, and struggles repeatedly offered this theme, this experience of not being all the way home. Ultimately these stories were the catalyst for Dayton entering the Master of Social Work (MSW) program at UTA and fulfilling her desire to provide pro-bono mental health services to veterans. Dayton believes it is our responsibility, as a society, to ensure every veteran arrives all the way home. Supporting our veterans in navigating their unique journey to wholeness and wellness demonstrates this call to action.

As Dayton matriculated through the MSW program, she took several steps towards her vision and mission of supporting the mental health of veterans as well as increasing her cultural competency. She completed her foundation internship with the University of Texas at Arlington Military and Veteran Services under the supervision of Executive Director Dr. James Kumm. Additionally, she received her Mental Health Peer Specialist certification and began offering pro-bono mental health services to student veterans.  

In her advanced internship, she served as the Project Manager of the Research Study Posttraumatic Growth and Transformation in Military-connected Populations  https://www.uta.edu/academics/schools-colleges/social-work/research/posttraumatic-growth-and-transformation-in-military where she remains a vital team member on the project as a participant in submitting research papers on the research study results. Data from the Research Study also served as the basis for her MSW Thesis titled Converging and Diverging Outcomes of Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) and Posttraumatic Depreciation (PTD) in 'Veterans: A Case Study and a copy is accessible from the UTA library website at https://rc.library.uta.edu/uta-ir/handle/10106/31356.

During her tenure as an MSW student, she received Outstanding MSW Student for Children and Families in the Fall of 2019 and Outstanding MSW Student for Mental Health and Substance Misuse in the Summer of 2023. Additionally, she received the honor of being nominated for Outstanding MSW Military Connected Student by Dr. Schuman in the Summer of 2023. Dayton graduated from The University of Texas at Arlington in the Summer of 2023 with the degree of Master of Social Work.

Providing pro bono mental health peer support to veterans is her vision, mission, and purpose in this final chapter of her life and the driving force of her service to the veteran community. A link to her website peer support page can be found at https://www.primepurposecoaching.com/paying-it-forward and a link to her mental health podcasts can be found on Spotify at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dayton-williams