Deep and indelible is the imprint of Dr. Roberta G. Williams on the discipline of pediatric cardiology and on the lives of countless patients, students, and fellow physicians.
A former chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Dr. Williams is professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and vice president of Pediatrics and Academic Affairs at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Dr. Williams received her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her medical degree from UNC. She served a medical/ pediatric internship at North Carolina Memorial Hospital (now UNC Hospitals), a residency in pediatrics at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, and a fellowship in cardiology at Harvard Medical School Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston.
Following ten years on the Harvard Medical School faculty, Dr. Williams joined the faculty of the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she was promoted to professor in 1986. From 1995 to 2000, she was professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UNC and physician-in-chief at North Carolina Children’s Hospital. She has led the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California for the past twelve years.
Dr. Williams is recognized internationally as a leader in pediatric cardiology, having lectured and published extensively on congenital heart disease and cardiac ultrasound.
“As an internist and cardiologist practicing in eastern North Carolina, I can attest to the value of these publications in managing these very complicated and difficult patients,” says James A. Whitaker III, MD, of Wilson, North Carolina, who was a UNC School of Medicine classmate of Dr. Williams.
Along with her other achievements in academic medicine, Dr. Williams is a superb clinician, a gifted teacher, and an inspiring mentor. “She has been loved, adored and respected by her students and patients,” Dr. Whitaker says. “She has a warm, caring demeanor, a friendly smile, as well as a keen sense of humor.” Dr. Whitaker attributes much of Dr. Williams’ success to her “brilliant mind and strong work ethic.”
Dr. Williams is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a Fellow of the American Pediatric Society, and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. She is a Master of both the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. She has held leadership positions in numerous professional organizations including membership on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics and chair of the Academy’s Section on Cardiology. She has served on the Board of Trustees of the American College of Cardiology and the Board of Directors of the American Society of Echocardiography.
Since 2003, Dr. Williams been on the Board of Counselors of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and she is a consultant/reviewer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Dr. Williams has served on the editorial boards of more than a dozen professional and scientific publications including Cardiology, the American Journal of Cardiology, Pediatric Cardiology, the Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound and Circulation.
She has been honored with numerous awards including, in 2010, the Founder’s Award of the Section of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She has received the Gifted Teacher Award of the American College of Cardiology, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography, and the Distinguished Service Award of the American Heart Association, Greater Los Angeles Affiliate. In 2004, the Clinical Cardiology Council of the American Heart Association honored Dr. Williams with its Women in Cardiology Mentor Award.
“Throughout this illustrious career, she has remained the same quiet, understated, modest individual I went to school with,” says Phil D. Coleman, MD, of Chapel Hill, a fellow member of the UNC School of Medicine class of 1968.
The president of that class, Robert R. Whitley, MD, of Reidsville, North Carolina, says of Dr. Williams: “She has accomplished so much in her career that UNC should be proud that she chose to attend our school. Roberta exemplifies what we strive for at UNC. We need leaders like her to be in the forefront of medicine.”
In recognition of her excellence as a physician, teacher, and leader in academic medicine; her contributions in the field of pediatric cardiology; and her enormous positive influence on all those whose lives she has touched – particularly children and their families – we are proud to present the Distinguished Medical Alumni Award to Dr. Roberta G. Williams.
