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

June 11, 2025

College of Nursing home is first building at Ohio State to earn designation

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has awarded The Ohio State University College of Nursing’s Jane E. Heminger Hall WELL Gold Certification for its construction and design features that promote and support health and well-being. It is the first building at Ohio State to earn this designation.

May 27, 2025

Joni Tornwall, clinical professor, College of Nursing, has been awarded a 2025-2026 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to teach student-centered nursing practices at Kyrgyz State Medical Academy.

Calendar

June 17, 1:00 p.m.
Golden Buckeye Center for Dementia Caregiving
760 Kinnear Road
Columbus
OH
43212