CEO/Executive Director

CEO/Executive Director Bud Williams has served as executive director of The Gooden Center since 1992. In that time, TGC has grown significantly in both capacity and in treatment excellence. Bud received an M.B.A. in Nonprofit Management from the University of Judaism in Bel Air, CA. He holds his Masters of Divinity from General Theological Seminary in New York City. As an Episcopal priest, Bud sees his position as full time ministry at TCG. He emphasizes that "although founded by the Episcopal Church in 1962, we help our clients and alumni grow into a more robust recovery for the rest of their lives. When we talk about spirituality, we do not mean one sect or denomination but the whole wonderful array of spiritual paths that lead to authentic reliance on a benevolent Force outside ourselves. We have staff and volunteers who are Christians, agnostics, Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and followers of Native American spirituality. Widely inclusive of different spiritual traditions, we assist our clients in identifying their spiritual paths, ever how dim they may initially appear."