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Dr. James Arthur Williams    

Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee; Owner of UnmaskYTP; Change Management, Leadership & Professional Development Consultant

Dr. James Arthur Williams is the owner of Unmaskytp consulting, where he serves as a sought-after leadership, professional development, conflict resolution, mental agility/perseverance, and change management speaker. Dr. Williams has spoken professionally for 12+ years to small (5) and large audiences (12,000 +) domestically and internationally (Bulgaria, France, Spain, China, Korea, etc.), with 24 years of work experience in the hospitality industry, dental, manufacturing, banking, sales, professional arena football, pharmaceuticals, military (USAF), k-12 education, and R-1 and for-profit universities.

Dr. Williams serves as an associate professor and former Director of University Honors at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Williams has designed and implemented a leadership curriculum for the Haslam Scholars and change management workshops for Marriott. Dr. Williams conducted in-person and virtual servant leadership development training sessions for hospitality managers and supervisors and CHE (certified hospitality educator) teaching pedagogy instructional training for 100+ hospitality professors.

Dr. Williams is a professional actor and wrote a book about mental agility called "From Thug to Scholar: An Odyssey to Unmask My True Potential" based on his life. He won INDIE Best Book for 2020 self-help with "Check Your Life: Be Limitless," related to his featured speaker talk for TEDx UTK in 2019, "Check Life." Dr. Williams was recognized as a Top 15 Emerging Scholar of 2019 by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Dr. Williams was also the Best international mentor for the Chinese Hospitality Education Initiative for the 2019 national championship in Shanghai, China.

Speech Topics


Check Your Life, Be Limitless Series

  • Teach student-athletes mental agility to persevere and tap into their hidden potential
  • Embracing and learning to fall in love with conflict
  • Moving beyond the limits of social constructs (i.e., race, religion, gender, etc.) and finding the universal energy that unites us
  • Building authentic leaders with three simple principles (3 B's)

Empowering corporate leaders to lean into their discomfort and to use conflict as their superpower to inclusive leadership.

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