David Williams

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Biography

Dr. David R. Williams is the Norman Professor of Public Health and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. His prior faculty appointments were at Yale University and the University of Michigan. An internationally recognized social scientist, his research has enhanced our understanding of the complex ways in which socioeconomic status, race, stress, racism, health behavior and religious involvement can affect health. He is the author of more than 500 scientific papers and 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, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He has been ranked as the Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences, worldwide, and as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.

He directed the South African Stress and Health Study, the first nationally representative study of the prevalence and correlates of mental disorders in sub-Sahara Africa. He was also a key member of the scientific team that conducted the largest study of the mental health of the black population in the U.S. and the first U.S. health study to include a large national sample of Blacks of Caribbean ancestry.

He has played a visible, national leadership role in raising awareness levels of inequities in health, including serving as staff director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America and a key scientific advisor to the award-winning PBS film series, Unnatural Causes: Is inequality Making Us Sick? His research has been featured in the national print and television media and in his TED Talk.

Awards and Honors

• Ranked Number 1 in Citations in African and African American Studies worldwide 2023 , 2023
  ScholarGPS
• William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research , 2022
  Association of University Programs in Health Administration and Baxter International Foundation
• Elected Honorary Fellow , 2022
  Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, England
• Harvard Faculty Humanitarian Award, 2019
  Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
• Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences, 2019
  National Academy of Sciences
• Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociological Study of Mental Health, 2017
  American Sociological Association
• Distinguished Leadership in Psychology Award, Committee on Socioeconomic Status, 2015
  American Psychological Association
• Ranked one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds Psychiatry/Psychology & Social Sciences, 2014
  Thomson Reuters
• Stephen Smith Award for Distinguished Contributions in Public Health, 2013
  New York Academy of Medicine
• Leo G. Reeder Award for Distinguished Contributions to Medical Sociology, 2011
  American Sociological Association
• Ranked as the Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences in 2008, 2009, 2008 - 2009
  The Journal of Black Issues in Higher Education
• Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007
  American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Ranked as one of the Top Ten Most Cited Researchers in the Social Sciences in the past decade, 2005
  ISI Essential Science Indicators
• Decade of Behavior Research Award, 2004
• Elected Member, National Academy of Medicine, 2001
  National Academy of Medicine
• High Honors List of Instructors , 1993
  U Michigan Student Assembly (Teaching ranked in top 5% of 2,300+ courses evaluated)

Publications

• Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Impacts of Racism on the Foundations of Health.

  Shonkoff JP, Slopen N, Williams DR. Annu Rev Public Health 2021 04 01

• Barriers to Mental Health Service Use and Predictors of Treatment Drop Out: Racial/Ethnic Variation in a Population-Based Study.

  Green JG, McLaughlin KA, Fillbrunn M, Fukuda M, Jackson JS, Kessler RC, Sadikova E, Sampson NA, Vilsaint C, Williams DR, Cruz-Gonzalez M, Alegría M. Adm Policy Ment Health 2020 07

• How Early Life Adversities Influence Later Life Family Interactions for Individuals with Schizophrenia in Outpatient Treatment: A Qualitative Analysis.

  Misra S, Johnson KA, Parnarouskis LM, Koenen KC, Williams DR, Gelaye B, Borba CPC. Community Ment Health J 2020 08

• Patterns of care and dropout rates from outpatient mental healthcare in low-, middle- and high-income countries from the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initiative.

  Fernández D, Vigo D, Sampson NA, Hwang I, Aguilar-Gaxiola S, Al-Hamzawi AO, Alonso J, Andrade LH, Bromet EJ, de Girolamo G, de Jonge P, Florescu S, Gureje O, Hinkov H, Hu C, Karam EG, Karam G, Kawakami N, Kiejna A, Kovess-Masfety V, Medina-Mora ME, Navarro-Mateu F, Ojagbemi A, O'Neill S, Piazza M, Posada-Villa J, Rapsey C, Williams DR, Xavier M, Ziv Y, Kessler RC, Haro JM. Psychol Med 2021 09

• A Structural Model of Social Determinants of the Metabolic Syndrome.

  Smith KW, Krieger N, Kosheleva A, Urato M, Waterman PD, Williams DR, Carney DR, Chen JT, Bennett GG, Freeman E. Ethn Dis 2025