Michelle Williams, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has been recognized by Research!America for effectively communicating important health and science information to the public to contribute to the fight against COVID-19.
Williams is among nine recipients of Research!America’s Outstanding Achievement in Public Health Awards, which recognize contributions during the pandemic in areas ranging from discovery to innovation to public communication to leadership. Research!America, a nonprofit committed to making medical and health research a higher national priority, will present the awards at an online event on April 14, 2021.
Williams, one of two recipients of the organization’s Clear Voice Award, is “a leading figure and persuasive voice in the efforts to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are distributed equitably and that issues of vaccine hesitancy are adequately resolved,” according to a February 4, 2021, press release from Research!America. “She has worked to ensure that the inequitable impact of COVID-19 on communities of color remains a central concern in the conversation about our nation’s response.”
Other awardees include Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden; Moncef Slaoui, former chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, the public-private partnership initiated by the U.S. government to speed the development of COVID-19 vaccines; and Katalin Karikó, senior vice president of BioNTech, the company that partnered with Pfizer to develop a COVID-19 that is now being used around the world.
Read the Research!America press release: Research!America to honor public health leadership and innovation in our nation’s response to the pandemic