Katherine Williams, MD, MPH

Biography

Dr. Williams is an Assistant Professor in Family Medicine, epidemiologist, and clinical research physician, whose current work is focused on multi-disciplinary approaches to understanding clinical responses to vaccinations and reducing disease burden with vaccinations. Her work has spanned the disciplines of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Epidemiology, Behavioral Medicine, and Family Medicine. 

She has experience in clinical primary care at an academic medical center, statistical and mathematical modeling, and multiple aspects of clinical research.  She has served as Research Project Coordinator on CDC funded influenza studies from 2019-present related to the immunologic response to influenza and/or COVID-19 vaccines.  Her role has included participating in study design planning, contributing scientific knowledge, managing data, performing statistical analyses, and leading publications.  Since 2022, she served as the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for Adult RSV vaccines, representing The Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR). 

Her experience and training in modeling of physiologic systems, infectious diseases, and vaccine interventions to develop meaningful clinical indices has allowed her to synthesize clinical data into relevant mathematical models directly applicable to complex biologic systems.  Using physiological and clinical data, she participated in the development of a widely applied clinical insulin resistance score to better understand the pathogenesis of diabetes and heart disease.  She has used the Framework for Reproducing Epidemiologic Dynamics (FRED) to study the impact of a range of potential influenza vaccine strategies on the population by age, race, and geographic location.  To more directly understand the impact of vaccines on underserved populations, she completed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion fellowship using Human Centered Design certification to develop an educational outreach strategy in rural areas.