Richard Allen Williams, MD, is a cardiologist, medical author and founder of the Association of Black Cardiologists. He recruited Black medical trainees, led hospital services and created organizations focused on unequal access to care. He also founded the Minority Health Institute, which focuses on medical education and health disparities.
Williams was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, the youngest of eight children. After graduating at the top of his class at Howard High School, he received a full scholarship to Harvard University, where he graduated with honors. He earned his medical degree at SUNY Downstate in 1962. His postgraduate training included an internship at the University of California, San Francisco, an internal medicine residency at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and a cardiology fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
As an instructor in cardiology at Harvard Medical School, Williams founded and directed the Central Recruitment Council of Boston Hospitals to recruit Black medical trainees. He later served as assistant medical director at Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in Watts and worked with David Satcher on the grant proposal that established the King-Drew Sickle Cell Center. Williams became the center's director. He later held cardiology leadership positions at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, including chief of the Heart Station.
In 1974, Williams founded the Association of Black Cardiologists and began a decade as its president. The organization established an endowed scholarship in his name for Black medical students in 1980. He founded the Minority Health Institute in 1987. His writing includes the Textbook of Black-Related Diseases, a medical reference focused on conditions affecting Black patients. Through books and educational work, he has addressed the need for clinicians to understand patients' cultural backgrounds and the barriers they face in obtaining care.
Williams was installed as the National Medical Association's 117th president in 2016. On April 28, 2026, Cardiovascular Associates of America announced his appointment as an advisor and ambassador for its environmental, social and governance work. The company also named him the recipient of its inaugural 2026 Luminaries in Cardiology Award. That announcement accompanied a partnership with the Minority Health Institute aimed at improving access to cardiovascular care.
