Karen Patricia Williams

Image
Karen Patricia Williams
First Name
Karen Patricia
Last Name
Williams
Credentials
PhD
Nursing Distinguished Professor of Women's Health
Director, Martha S. Pitzer Center for Women, Children and Youth
Address
200L Heminger Hall
Address (Line 2)
1577 Neil Avenue
City
Columbus
State
OH
Zip Code
43210

Dr. Karen Patricia Williams is the Nursing Distinguished Professor of Women’s Health (tenured) and inaugural executive director for the Martha S. Pitzer Center for Women, Children and Youth in The Ohio State University College of Nursing. Her formal training is in applied sociology and health services research. Her expertise is in community-based research and women’s health policy. She has been involved in the evolution of women’s health research from its fragmentation to its transition of bench to bedside to barrio (community) through the use of mixed methodology, quantitative and qualitative to address health equity. Dr. Williams designed a breast and cervical cancer prevention intervention – Kin KeeperSM. Kin KeeperSM is also a health equity theoretical model for underserved populations.

By defining functional cancer literacy, Dr. Williams’ research made a significant contribution to the literature. Breast and cervical cancer literacy is a woman’s functional understanding of her personal and familial risk of the disease, including how to minimize her risk and the risk to her family through preventive early detection screenings and lifestyle changes and how to access the health care system and engage providers to minimize her risk and the risk to her family. She developed psychometrically sound cancer literacy assessment tools in English, Spanish and Arabic that are used internationally.

Currently, her program of research, Black Women’s Health Across the Diaspora is transdisciplinary. Her team consisting of researchers, clinicians and public health practitioners are using mechanistic and multilevel pathways of resilience with the goal of identifying the predictive factors of allostatic load that impact cardiovascular disease risk among African American women across the lifespan with varying social and economic status.

Her leadership has included service on civic boards and community-based organizations. She is a graduate of Temple University and Michigan State University.

News

October 08, 2025

The Ohio State University College of Nursing is aiming to double undergraduate enrollment by 2027 in response to nationwide nursing shortages.

Read all about it in The Lantern:

Click here to read the article

October 01, 2025

Full-time program can be completed in as few as 18 months

A new program at The Ohio State University College of Nursing is helping students with a degree and an interest in a career in health care reach their goals at an accelerated pace.

The college launched the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (aBSN) program in 2024 for students who have finished college in a non-nursing field but desire to have a career in nursing. The full-time program can be completed in as few as 18 months.

Calendar

October 24, 10:00 a.m.
Heminger Hall
1577 Neil Ave
Columbus
Oh
43210