David Williams is the Norman Professor of Public Health, at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and a Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. His prior academic appointments were at Yale University and the University of Michigan.
Dr. Williams received his early education in St. Lucia, holds Master’s degrees in Divinity and Public Health and a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan.
An internationally recognized authority on social influences on health, Dr. Williams has been invited to keynote scientific conferences around the world. The author of more than 500 scientific papers, his research has enhanced our understanding of the ways in which race, socioeconomic status, stress, racism, health behavior and religious involvement can affect health. The Everyday Discrimination Scale that he developed is the most widely used measure of discrimination in health studies.
Dr. Williams is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom. He has a been ranked as the Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences, worldwide, and as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds and has received distinguished contribution awards from the American Sociological Association, the American Psychological Association and the New York Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Williams has been involved in the development of health policy in the US and elsewhere. Currently, he serves on the Board of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the UK’s National Health Service’s Race and Health Observatory, and as a member of the Kellogg Foundation’s Solidarity Council on Racial Equity. He was also a key scientific advisor to the award-winning PBS film series, Unnatural Causes: Is inequality Making Us Sick? Dr. Williams' work has been featured in TED Talks, in many American news outlets and by TVO in Canada.