Department Chair

Meet Kim Williams Sr., M.D., Chair of the University of Louisville Department of Medicine

Kim Williams 2022 2On July 1, 2022, Kim A. Williams Sr., M.D., MACC, MASNC, FAHA, FESC, became the 24th chair of the University of Louisville Department of Medicine since its inception in 1837.

He also serves as the Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana Endowed Chair in Health Equity.

Dr. Williams specializes in cardiology, cardio-nutrition, cardio-rheumatology, cardio-nephrology, preventive cardiology and cardiovascular radiology, and is a past President of the American College of Cardiology, past President of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Black Cardiologists.

He is also the founder of the Urban Cardiology Initiative in Detroit, MI, to reduce ethnic heart care disparities, and continues community-based efforts in Chicago at Rush University, including the H.E.A.R.T. program (Helping Everyone Assess Risk Today), screening for heart disease and intervening with education, nutrition and lifestyle changes.

He has been a delegate for cardiology to the American Medical Association for over 20 years and has served as a consultant for the FDA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

His current professional focus is on preventive cardiology, synthesizing data on cardiovascular risk and mortality due to nutrition, as an internationally recognized speaker.

He has over 600 research and guideline publications, online resources, movies and lectures, most recently on the topic of cardionutrition, and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention.

A native of Chicago's South Side's inner-city schools, and a former professional tennis player and national tennis coach, Dr. Williams has over 40 years of experience as an educator, researcher, and clinician focused on advocacy for nutrition, national and international health care disparities, health care delivery, and advanced access to cardiac imaging.