Martin Luther King Day Lecturer - David R. Williams, PhD - Contributor for PBS Series Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick

David R. Williams is the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of African and African American Studies and of Sociology at Harvard University. He is internationally recognized as a leading social scientist focused on social influences on health. His research has enhanced our understanding of the complex ways in which race, racial discrimination, socioeconomic status and religious involvement can affect physical and mental health. He is the author of more than 300 scholarly papers in scientific journals and edited collections and his research has appeared in leading journals in sociology, psychology, medicine, public health and epidemiology. 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.

Dr. Williams has been involved in the development of health policy at the national level in the U.S. He has served on the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics and on seven committees for the Institute of Medicine including the Committee that prepared the Institute of Medicine Study Unequal Treatment, which uncovered a consistent body of research demonstrating significant variation in the rates of medical procedures by race, even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions were comparable. He was also a key scientific advisor to the award-winning PBS film series, Unnatural Causes: Is inequality Making Us Sick?, a gripping series which concluded that the social, economic, and physical environments in which we are born, live and work profoundly affect our longevity and health – as much as smoking, diet and exercise. He served as a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health.

Dr Williams has also played a visible, national leadership role in raising awareness levels of the problem of health disparities and identifying interventions to address them. From 2007 through December 2009, he served as the staff director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America. This national, independent and nonpartisan health commission was focused on identifying evidence-based non-medical strategies that can improve the health of all Americans and reduce racial and socioeconomic gaps in health.  Dr. Williams has appeared on national television, including ABC’s Evening News, CNN, PBS, C-SPAN and the Discovery Channel. His research has been featured or he has been quoted in the national print media including the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Jet and USA Today.

In 2001, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences and in 2000 he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 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 holds an MPH degree from Loma Linda University and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan.

This is a free lecture! Title: "Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick" on January 21, 4pm, at Washington University School of Medicine,, Eric P. Newman Education Center, 320 S. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, MO 631100 | RSVP with Michelle Patterson by calling 314.362.6854 or email at mpatterson@wustl.edu. Free parking available on surface lots, validated parking available in the North Garage, across the street from the Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM) Building or the Metro Garage.  Please bring your parking ticket to the lobby.