George Williams
George Williams, SJ is from North Haven, CT. After graduation from Syracuse University in 1979, he served 5 years as an Air Force officer in Alaska, Germany and Saudi Arabia. In 1984 he joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Nome, AK working as the rock show DJ and news editor for KNOM, a Jesuit-founded radio station serving the people of Western Alaska. He entered the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits) in Boston in 1987.
He felt called to work in prison ministry and began working at the Suffolk County Jail in 1993 as the Catholic Chaplain.
He earned an MSW and an M.Div. from Boston College and a master’s degree in Spiritual Direction from the Center for Religious Development in Cambridge. He was ordained a priest in 2004. While in theology studies, he worked as a counselor at The Bridge House in Framingham, MA, a faith-based halfway house for ex-prisoners.
Following ordination, he worked as the Catholic Chaplain at MCI-Concord. He began a doctoral program in Criminology at Northeastern University in 2007. He moved to the Bay Area in 2010 to be the Catholic Chaplain at San Quentin State Prison.
While working at San Quentin, he researched, wrote and defended his doctoral thesis, “Resisting Burnout: Correctional Staff Spirituality and Resilience,” earning his Ph.D. in April 2017. He is a founding member of the Catholic Prison Ministry Coalition, established in 2018. He retired from the California Department of Corrections last summer to begin his new assignment as the Pastor of St. Agnes parish in Haight-Ashbury.