Program Description
Event Details
Join us for a lively evening with author, trauma surgeon, and professor Dr. Brian H. Williams. Williams will discuss his latest book, The Bodies Keep Coming: Dispatches From a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal. In raw and intimate detail, trauma surgeon Dr. Brian H. Williams narrates not only the events of the night that thrust him into the national spotlight, but his grief and anger as a Black doctor on the front lines of trauma care. Working in the physician-writer tradition of Atul Gawande and Damon Tweedy, Williams diagnoses the roots of the violence that plagues us.
About Dr. Brian H. Williams
Dr. Brian H. Williams is a trauma surgeon, Air Force alumnus, and former congressional health policy advisor. As a frontline clinician, medical educator, and public speaker, Dr. Williams is a nationally recognized leader in structural racism, gun violence, and health equity,
Dr. Williams has excelled in several leadership roles in the military, academic medicine, public health, and public policy. He began his career serving as a United States Air Force officer, directing research and developmental test programs. Since transitioning to medicine, he has had extensive experience as a trauma surgeon at some of the busiest urban centers in the country. Dr. Williams gained national prominence after leading the team that cared for police officers ambushed on July 7, 2016 in Dallas, Texas. Recognizing his commitment to service, the mayor of Dallas appointed Williams as Chair of the city of Dallas Citizens Police Review Board. His leadership and expertise in public health and safety, helped unite the Dallas Police Department, community activists, police unions, and the City Council to reform the role civilians served in police oversight.
Dr. Williams received his BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, graduating with military honors. He received his MD from the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, completed general surgery residency training at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and completed two fellowships, trauma surgery and surgical critical care, at Emory University/Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. He has served as a faculty trauma surgeon at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX, and at the University of Chicago Medicine.
Dr. Williams has been a featured commentator on CNN, and his op-eds have been published in Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, and MedPage Today.