#BlackInCompBio Seminar Series: ClarLynda Williams-DeVane, Ph.D.

ClarLynda Williams-DeVane is a health disparity informaticist.  Dr. Williams-DeVane currently serves as the director of North Carolina’s State Center for Health Statistics and North Carolina State Registrar.  She also serves as an Associate Professor of Data Science and Bioinformatics.  Dr. Williams-DeVane formerly served as the founding chair of the Data Science and Bioinformatics at Fisk University and an associate professor of Bioinformatics at NC Central University.  Dr. Williams-DeVane’s has focused on three main initiatives throughout her career 1) diversifying data science and bioinformatics towards having diverse perspectives at the table to solve demystify health equity by providing innovative, immersive educational experiences, 2) data curation creating accessible, digestible data sets, and 3) the use of computational approaches to explore the etiology of cardio-metabolic diseases and the co-morbidities that contribute to disparate outcomes.  Dr. Williams-DeVane is focused on diversity in and through informatics. This goal is met through the development and administration of novel data science and bioinformatics curricula designed to meet students where they are and give them the tools, opportunities, and pathways to become informaticists. This goal is further met through the infusion of students into the Williams-DeVane health disparity informatics research program. Lastly, students are engaged through the development of the Williams-DeVane founded Data Science Club and Data Science Hub. The Data Science Club is a student-led club for ALL students with an interest in Data Science where students identify current applications or tools in data science, that they want to learn. The Data Science Hub is a Data Analysis center where faculty can bring their data or problem and allow students can apply the data science workflow to explore and answer questions from various disciplines. Dr. Williams-DeVane earned her PhD in Bioinformatics from North Carolina State University, completed a Postdoctoral fellowship at the US Environmental Protection Agency, and lastly completed the Building Interdisciplinary Careers in Women’s Health fellowship in OB Gyn at Duke University School of Medicine.  Dr. Williams-DeVane is currently focused on moving North Carolina forward in the battle against COVID19 and equitable health.

Talk titled "The Rubik’s Cube of Life: From Bioinformatics to Health Statistics".