Valerie L. Williams

Valerie L. Williams, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Scientist and Evaluator at the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), where she leads and supports evaluation efforts throughout the organization. Prior to joining NCWIT, Dr. Williams worked at the RAND Corporation, where she led several projects in government strategic planning, defense and intelligence, public health, and K-12 science education evaluation. She was the lead author on the RAND report “Demonstrating and Communicating Research Impact,” which describes a methodology to construct “evidence packages” that show how scientific research activities contribute to societal outcomes.

Dr. Williams is a member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and has participated on several committees, including AEA’s Guiding Principles Task Force and the AEA 2012 Presidential Task Force. She has also been an invited member of several National Academies committees, including the National Academies’ evaluation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), which led to the publication An Assessment of ARPA-E, and the National Research Council’s Expert Evaluation Meeting for the NRC review of NOAA’s Education Program. Dr. Williams received her doctoral degree in Chemistry at New York University, earned her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Emory University, and completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic.