ClarLynda Williams-DeVane currently serves as the director of the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics (SCHS). She is a health disparity informaticist and has spent her career focused on how data can be used to achieve health equity.
Dr. Williams-DeVane previously served as the founding chair of the Department of Data Science and Bioinformatics at Fisk University. She has further consulted with researchers on the use of data driven metrics of health factors such as race and socioeconomic status as well as analytics to develop an understanding of the etiologies of health inequities.
Through this journey, Dr. Williams-DeVane determined that one of ways to change the landscape of social and political unrest was through data empowerment. Dr. Williams-DeVane has worked to create unique joint majors between data science and social justice/history/political science, where students are empowered to digest, analysis, and interpret data for themselves and others. She further initiated the creation of the Data Science Innovation Hub and the Data Science Club at Fisk University, where students can explore public data as a tool to be social and political advocates.
Dr. Williams-DeVane is now focused on empowering the residents of North Carolina to be their own best advocate in the journey to achieve health equity in North Carolina. In the advent of the 4th industrial revolution, Dr. Williams-DeVane’s goal is to make sure that every person is empowered by data.