David R. Williams is a St Lucian and American social scientist who has specialized in the study of social influences on health. His research has enhanced our understanding of the complex ways in which race, socioeconomic status, racism, stress, health behaviors and religious involvement can affect physical and mental health. He has been invited to keynote scientific conferences in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, South America and across the United States.
Currently, he is the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and Professor of African and African American Studies and of Sociology at Harvard University. His first 6 years as a faculty member were at Yale University where he held appointments in both Sociology and Public Health. The next 14 years were at the University of Michigan where he was the Harold Cruse Collegiate Professor of Sociology, a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Social Research and a Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health.
Dr. Williams is the author of more than 500 scholarly papers in scientific journals and edited collections and his research has appeared in leading journals in sociology, psychology, medicine, public health and epidemiology. The Everyday Discrimination scale that he developed is currently the most widely used measure to assess perceived discrimination in health studies. He has served on the editorial board of 16 scientific journals and as a reviewer for over 70 journals. According to ISI Essential Science Indicators, he was one of the Top 10 Most Cited Researchers in the Social Sciences during the decade 1995 to 2005. The Journal of Black Issues in Higher Education ranked him as the Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences in 2008. And Thomson Reuters ranked him, in 2014, as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds based on his scientific articles published between 2002 and 2012. In 2023, ScholarGPS ranked him number one in citations in African and African American Studies worldwide.
With funding from the National Institutes of Health and the sponsorship of the World Health Organization, Dr. Williams directed the South African Stress and Health Study, the first nationally representative study of the prevalence and correlates of psychiatric disorders in sub-Sahara Africa. This study assessed the effects of HIV/AIDS, exposure to racial discrimination and torture during apartheid, on the health of the South African population. He was also a key member of the team that conducted the National Study of American Life, the largest study of mental health disorders in the African American population in the U.S. and the first health study to include a large national sample of Blacks of Caribbean ancestry. He also served as the director of the Lung Cancer Disparities Center at Harvard, a center for Population Health and Health Disparities funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Williams received his elementary and high school education in Castries, St Lucia. After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of the Southern Caribbean in Trinidad and Tobago, he earned master’s degrees in divinity and public health, at Andrews University and Loma Linda University, respectively. He next earned a master’s and PhD degree in sociology from the University of Michigan.
AWARDS (Selected)
- Elected Member, National Academy of Medicine (formerly, Institute of Medicine), 2001
- Decade of Behavior Research Award, 2004
- Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI, 2004
- Ranked as one of the Top Ten Most Cited Researchers in the Social Sciences in the past decade (Jan. 1, 1995 to Aug. 31, 2005), ISI Essential Science Indicators, 2005
- Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007
- Ranked as the Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences in 2008, The Journal of Black Issues in Higher Education, 2009
- Leo G. Reeder Award for Distinguished Contributions to Medical Sociology, American Sociological Association, 2011
- Stephen Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions in Public Health, New York Academy of Medicine, 2013
- Top Blacks in Healthcare, BlackDoctor.org and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, 2014
- Lemuel Shattuck Award for Significant Contributions to the Field of Public Health, Massachusetts Public Health Association, 2014
- Ranked as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (in two fields: Psychiatry/Psychology and Social Sciences, General), based on articles published between 2002 and 2012, Thomson Reuters, 2014
- Distinguished Leadership in Psychology Award, Committee on Socioeconomic Status, American Psychological Association, 2015
- Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociological Study of Mental Health, American Sociological Association, 2017
- Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences, 2019
- St. Lucia Medal of Merit (Gold), Government of St. Lucia, 2020
- Goodwill Ambassador, Government of St Lucia, 2020-2023
- Elected Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, England, 2022
- William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research, Association of University Programs in Health Administration and Baxter International Foundation, 2022
- Doctor of Science, honoris causa, College of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, 2023
- Ranked number one in citations in African and African American Studies, ScholarGPS, 2023