Dionna W. Williams, PhD

Education

About

Dr. Dionna Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology and Clinical Pharmacology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with expertise in neuroscience, immunology, and pharmacology. Her research interests are in the neuropathogenesis of HIV, regulatory mechanisms of neuroimmune signaling, drug delivery to the central nervous system, and immunologic and pharmacologic contributors to health disparities.

She received her undergraduate degree cum laude from Hofstra University, where she studied biochemistry. She earned a master’s degree with distinction and a doctorate in biomedical science from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. As a doctoral candidate, she received the UNCF/Merck Graduate Science Research Dissertation Fellowship and support from the Mount Sinai Institute for NeuroAIDS Disparities. Dr. Williams pursed her postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins to perform immunology, pharmacology, and health disparities research. While a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Williams earned a certificate in health disparities and health inequalities from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. During the tenure of her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Williams was awarded the K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health and the Johns Hopkins Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. Additionally, she received support from the Translational Research in NeuroAIDS and Mental Health Center and the National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program.