Today’s Friday Feature is CJ Williams!
CJ Williams is a Project Coordinator and Research Assistant in the BrainLENS Lab.
CJ is currently responsible for a project called “Intergenerational neuroimaging of language and reading networks” (H17-317UCSF). This project is also called The Family Study or the UConn Family Brain Program. For the study, families with children (5-12 years old) are invited to participate in a study of how genes and environment contribute to the organization of the brain for language, reading, and cognition. Families complete some questionnaires and visit their lab at the Brain Imaging Research Center for several hours. During the visit, families complete language, reading, and cognition assessments and have an MRI of the brain. They also collect saliva from your family. At the end of participation, they provide reports of the results and brain pictures for everyone in the family.
CJ obtained a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in the Russian language from Kenyon College in 2013. As a Graduate Assistant for the Men’s and Women’s Tennis Teams, he graduated with a M.A. in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Social Sciences from Wesleyan University in 2021.
CJ was raised in Richmond, Virginia, and spent most of his life dedicated to the sport of tennis. He played collegiately at Virginia Commonwealth University and at Kenyon College, where he developed a passion for psychology and mental health. After his playing career, he decided to coach high-performance junior tennis at various junior programs in Richmond, VA, and Boston, MA. CJ also coached collegiate tennis at various universities. During his time as a coach, CJ volunteered with organizations designed to provide support groups for young people from marginalized communities, particularly within the LGBTQ+ community. Through these experiences, his passion for psychology transformed into a passion for helping young people develop. Studying and maintaining yoga and meditative practices, he incorporated mindfulness and compassion into his coaching and saw its potential to affect the lives of his players and even his own. As the mental health crisis touches all groups of people, his time as a coach exposed him to a variety of struggles that young people experience. With his passion for helping people and intellectual desire to learn more about the clinical mental health field, he decided to fully transition into the field of psychology. Using his M.A. at Wesleyan and his experience with the awesome researchers at the BrainLENS lab, CJ plans to apply to Clinical Psychology programs so that he can become involved in the holistic development of young people at the formative stages of their development.
CJ’s favorite at-home activity is doing a full-body scan meditation where you lie down on a mat, close your eyes, focus on breathing, and mentally scan and breathe into each part of your body. While this is a relaxing and refreshing activity itself, it’s made all the better and more sensational when his cat sniffs around him with her cold, wet nose, and plops down next to him with her soft fur. CJ is also a huge consumer of film, television, and literature (comic books, too!), and music across all genres. CJ will listen to, read, or watch anything! The weirder the better. CJ still plays tennis recreationally and continues to develop his practices within the school of Ashtanga Yoga.
