Prof. Ishan Williams Earns Southern Gerontological Society's Top Award
Whether leading dementia discussions from church sanctuaries, teaching quantitative research methods to PhD students, or dancing a two-step with community advisory board members at outdoor health fairs, professor Ishan Williams is everywhere, bridging science, education, and service.
So are her pile-up of grants and honors, which include a $5.9 million NIH award that aims to improve the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare to ensure it serves a wider array of patient populations, a 3Cavaliers Grant that birthed the short, graphical film “Animating Alzheimer’s,” and two Virginia Alzheimer’s Disease Research Award Fund grants focused on early detection of dementia in high-risk populations and the experiences of families navigating dementia care—work that’s grounded in her commitment to centering community voices and lived experiences.
Now she can add to her long list of accolades one more: the GRITS Award (Gerontologists Rooted in the South), the Southern Gerontological Society’s (SGS) highest accolade.
The GRITS Award, presented to Williams at the SGS’s annual conference in Birmingham, AL, in early April, celebrates members who’ve made outstanding contributions to the field of gerontology, meaningful engagement with aging communities, and who exhibit a commitment to mentoring the next generation of aging scholars. Alongside a plaque and a chance to address the crowd, GRITS awardees also receive a small, lighthearted baggie of actual grits, the famed Southern fare served best with butter and salt.
“Ishan is a shining example of a scholar-scientist who’s as rooted in the communities she serves as she is in the halls of academia, which few social scientists manage to easily embody. . . . She inspires legions.”
Marianne Baernholdt, the Pew Charitable Trusts Dean and Professor
“Ishan is a shining example of a scholar-scientist who’s as rooted in the communities she serves as she is in the halls of academia,” said Marianne Baernholdt, the Pew Charitable Trusts Dean and Professor, “which few social scientists manage to easily embody. We’re proud of the important work she does as well as the close ties she has to her student mentees, who are our next generation of research scientists, practitioners, care providers, and advocates. She inspires legions.”
Williams is a social and behavioral scientist who studies topics related to healthcare in aging, quality of life, and how best to support those with dementia and their caregivers. Her science is wide-ranging and important: from her work in end-of-life and palliative care, caregiver stress, and care transitions, to her engagement with communities, including her latest NIH-funded work that seeks to ensure that healthcare AI is fed by ethically sourced and trustworthy data.
Williams interdisciplinary collaborations span nursing, medicine, biology, psychology, through advisory boards, film, and her engagement with community groups. She is a UVA Shannon Fellow alumna, a MLK UVA Health award recipient, a Marshall Gerontology Fellow alumna, and served two terms as SGS president.
Also honored at SGS’s conference was UVA PhD in nursing student Lauren Catlett. Catlett, whose dissertation examines advance care planning among transgender elders, earned a top spot for their student paper, “Multilevel factors affecting health equity for transgender and gender diverse older adults.”
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