Join us after the Plenary Racism and Health: Past Challenges and Current Opportunities to hear our guest speaker, Dr David R Williams (Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health; Chair, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, USA) in conversation with Dr Omolade Femi-Ajao (Lecturer in Global Health, The University of Manchester).
Hosting the event is Professor Dawn Edge (Professor of Mental Health & Inclusivity, University Academic Lead for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI)).
Dr David R. Williams bio:
Dr Williams is the Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health and Chair, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also a Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. His prior faculty appointments were at Yale University and the University of Michigan. He holds an MPH from Loma Linda University and a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan.
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 behaviour and religious involvement can affect physical and mental health. The Everyday Discrimination Scale that he developed is the most widely used measure of discrimination in health studies.
He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2001, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2019. He has received Distinguished Contribution Awards from the American Sociological Association, the American Psychological Association and the New York Academy of Medicine. He was ranked as the Most Cited Black Scholar in the Social Sciences in 2008. In 2014, Thomson Reuters ranked him as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.
He has played a visible, national leadership role in raising awareness levels of inequities in health and interventions to address them. He is currently one of the Chairs of the International Race and Health Experts Group and an NHS Race and Health Observatory Board member.
