Michelle A. Williams

Michelle is a member of ICF’s Board of Directors and the dean of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

For more than 35 years, Michelle has been a public health research and academic leader. With a focus on reproductive, perinatal, pediatric, and molecular epidemiology, she’s carried out large-scale, multidisciplinary research involving the collection and analysis of epidemiological data and biological specimens, both domestically and internationally. She has also published more than 500 peer-reviewed research papers on a wide range of studies—from modifiable behavioral and environmental determinants of adverse health outcomes to genetic and genomic studies of common complications of pregnancy and chronic disorders among children and adults.

Before assuming her current role as dean in 2016, Michelle served as professor and chair of the Epidemiology Department at the Harvard Chan School and program leader of the Population Health and Health Disparities Research Programs at Harvard’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Center. She joined Harvard after a distinguished career at the University of Washington School of Public Health and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.

Michelle has been recognized with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2020), the Harvard Chan School’s Outstanding Mentor Award (2015), the White House’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (2012), the University of Washington’s Brotman Award for excellence in teaching (2007), and the American Public Health Association’s Abraham Lilienfeld Award for education in epidemiology (2007).

She is a member of several professional and scholarly associations, including the National Academy of Medicine, the Society for Epidemiologic Research, and the American Epidemiological Society. In 2020, she was recognized by PR Week as one of the top 50 health influencers of the year.