2021 Helen B. Taussig Memorial Lecturer – Roberta G. Williams, MD, FAHA

Doctor Williams developed interest in congenital heart disease (CHD0 as an undergraduate research assistant. Following residency training in Medicine-Pediatrics, she completed a three-year fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital which included training in adult cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. After 12 years in Boston where she served as Director of Echocardiography and Medical Director of Cardiothoracic Surgical Intensive care, Roberta was Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of California Los Angeles and Chair of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina and at the University of Southern California, VP for Academic Affairs at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). She now heads the Center for Healthy Adolescent Transition at CHLA.

She participated in the early development of echocardiography, which led her to the diagnosis and management of fetuses as well as children and adults with CHD This provided the perspective of the progression of CHD, beginning with fetal life and progressing throughout adulthood.

Throughout her career, she has promoted collaboration between adult and pediatric cardiologists and the development of quality standards, training criteria, and management guidelines. She was a member of the writing group for the ABIM ACHD certifying examination. She co-edited the first ACC/AHA guidelines for the management of adults with congenital heart disease as well as headed a taskforce on research in ACHD for NHLBI. Doctor Williams has served on Advisory Council for NHLBI and other review panels and committees for NIH as well as review panels for NASA, PCORI, and the Institute of Medicine.