Dr. Carla Williams PhD

Dr. Carla Williams background is in clinical psychology with an emphasis on health-related behaviors. She has experience in community-based participatory research with a focus on building capacity within community organizations to collaborate with health scientists to implement health interventions in community settings. Dr. Williams directs several institutional resources that focus on engaging communities in research. Under her direction, the Community Outreach Core of the Howard University Cancer Center facilitates community partnerships focused on reducing cancer disparities. For the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Research, she co-lead the Community Engagement Program which seeks to develop research collaborations between investigators in the academic health centers, community-based clinicians, and community-based organizations. The Community Engagement program also works to engage diverse populations in research. Within the NIMHD-funded Center of Excellence for Health Disparities, Dr. Williams lead the Community Engagement Core which aims to build capacity for community-academic research partnerships and enhance bi-directional communication between communities and academia. She has 20 years of progressively responsible experience in research that seeks to engage hard to reach groups. She is actively involved in local cancer policy and advocacy activities including being a member of the planning team for the DC Cancer Action Plan and serving as past chair and ongoing member of the DC Tobacco Free Coalition. In these roles, Dr. Williams works with community health advocates to promote individual adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors as well as work to support population-level change in the environment, health policies, and health systems. All of her work is focused on populations that experience health disparities