Ann B. Williams

Jayne Professor Emeritus of Nursing

For over 3 decades, Ann Williams worked as a nurse practitioner caring for persons with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and abroad. She was the Helen Porter Jayne and Martha Prosser Jayne Professor of Nursing at Yale School of Nursing and Professor of Medicine in Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. From 1991 to 2010, she led the Connecticut AIDS Education and Training Center. In 2010 she moved to the University of California Los Angeles where she was Professor and Associate Dean for Research. She retired from UCLA in October 2015 and resides now in New York City where she currently serves as Director of Global Programs, New York University Nursing School. She has been closely affiliated with Yale China Association for two decades and continues on their Board of Trustees and as Secretary of the Board.

Williams designed and conducted some of the earliest studies of AIDS among drug users, developing and testing interventions to decrease HIV transmission, improve gynecologic care of women living with HIV, and increase patient adherence to antiretroviral medication. Her home nursing intervention was recognized by the Centers for Disease Control as one of only 8 evidence-based best practice interventions and has been adapted for use in China. In July 2013, she was inducted into the International Nurse Researchers Hall of Fame.

In addition to her clinical and scholarly work, Williams has demonstrated a commitment to the education and mentorship of the next generation of nurse-leaders. While at Yale School of Nursing, she supervised over 100 masters and doctoral theses. Her former students and mentees currently occupy leadership positions in nursing practice, policy, and academia around the world. The HIV/AIDS Nursing and Symptom Management text she co-edited with Mary Ropka received the Nurse Practitioner Best Books of 1998 award and served as a template for nursing texts in Poland, China, and Vietnam. The training program addressing safe use of medical sharps developed for Chinese nurses under Williams’s direction in 1997 provided the impetus for revision of policies in that country on a national level and continues to be delivered under the auspices of the National Nursing Center of China.

Recent Publications:

Chen, J., Li, X. H., Xiong, Y., Fennie, K. P., Wang, H. H., Williams, A. B. (2016) Reducing the risk of HIV transmission among men who have sex with men: A feasibility study of the motivational interviewing counseling method. Nursing and Health. In press.

Li, X. H., Zhang, B. Li, Y., Antonio, A. M., Chen, Y., & Williams, A. B. (2016). Mental health and suicidal ideation among Chinese women who have sex with men who have sex with men (MSM). Women & Health. In press.  DOI:10.1080/03630242.2016.1145171

Li, X. H. Lei, Y. X., Wang, H. H., He, G. P., & Williams, A. B. (2016). The Health Belief Model: A qualitative study to understand high-risk sexual behavior in Chinese men who have sex with men. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care, 27(1):66-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jana.2015.10.005

Wang, H. H., Zhang, C. H., Ruan, Y., Li, X. H., Fennie, K. P., & Williams, A. B. (2014). Depressive symptoms and social support among people living with HIV in Hunan, China. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care, 25(6):568-576. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jana.2014.02.001

Williams, A. B., Wang, H. H., Li, X. H., Chen, J., Li, L., & Fennie, K. P. (2014). Efficacy of an evidence-based ARV adherence intervention in China. AIDS Patient Care STDs, 28(8):411-7.

Zou, X. B., Chen, X., Tian, H. P. Williams, A. B., Wang, H. H., He, J. M., Zhen, J. Chiarella, J., Blake, L. A., Turenchalk, G., & Kozal, M. J. (2014). Prevalence of WHO transmitted drug resistance mutations by deep sequencing in antiretroviral-naïve subjects in Hunan Province, China. PLoS. DOI: 10.1371./journal.pone.0098740

Li, X. H., Li, L., Wang, H. H., Fennie, K. P., Cheng, J., & Williams, A. B. (2015). Mediation analysis of health related quality of life among HIV-infected people in China. Nursing and Health Sciences, 17(2):250-56. DOI: 10.1111/nhs.12181

Williams, A. B. Le, S. T., Colby, D., Le, T. T., Pollack T., & Cosimi, L. (2013). Effectiveness of train-the-trainer education: A model from Vietnam. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care, 25(4):341-50.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jana.2013.07.005

Williams, A. B., Wang, H. H., Burgess, J. D., Li, X. H., & Danvers, K. A. (2013). Cultural adaptation of an evidence-based nursing intervention to improve medication adherence

among people living with HIV/AIDS in China. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 50(4):487-494. doi 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.08.018

Williams, A. B., Amico, K. R., Bova, C., & Womack, J. A. (2013). A proposal for quality standards for measuring medication adherence in research. AIDS Behavior, 17(1):284-97. doi: 10.1007/s10461-012-0172-7

Li, X., Wang, H. H., He, G., Fennie, K. P., & Williams, A. B. (2012). Shadow on my heart: A culturally grounded concept of HIV stigma among Chinese injection drug users. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care, 23(1):52-62. doi: 10.1016/j.jana.2011.07.002

Li, X., Huang, L., Wang, H. H., Fennie, K. P., He, G., & Williams, A. B. (2011). Stigma mediates the relationship between self-efficacy, medication adherence, and quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS in China. AIDS Patient Care STDs, 25(11):665-71.