Heather E. Williams, PhD, MS, PgD, ErCLG, CG(ASCP)MB
Dr. Williams is an EBMG Board Certified Clinical Laboratory Geneticist (ErCLG), is currently ABMGG Board Eligible, and is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics & Genomics (FACMG). In addition, she is a United Kingdom Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered Clinical Scientist
(Genomics) and holds categorical certifications (Cytogenetics, Molecular Biology) from the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP). A Pathology and Laboratory Medicine healthcare executive, she serves as the Vice President, Clinical Genomics Operations & Chief of Staff at Cache DNA in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dr. Williams was previously the Head of Cancer Testing at Harbinger Oncology (Harbinger Health) and Principal Clinical Scientist/Deputy Head with Viapath at the King’s College Hospital (London) Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Centre. She completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)/ABMGG fellowship at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and will soon complete her Executive Master of Business Administration (Healthcare) at Yale University. Dr. Williams’s expertise includes transitioning laboratories to the ISO15189 medical laboratories standard to demonstrate the quality and reliability of their service, advocacy and government affairs for health equity in genomic medicine, and standards for utilizing genomic data. Dr. Williams focuses on the collaborative open sharing and standardization for the classification of variants to determine clinical significance, addressing emerging issues in access to genomic testing, and supporting the recognition, certification, and global awareness of Laboratory Genomic Professionals.
She was the selected reviewer of the 4th edition (2017) of the Association of Genetic Technologists Laboratory Manual, the first author of the first-ever paper published by the ACMG’s Advocacy and Government Affairs (AGA) Committee to assist policymakers tasked with improving appropriate, broad access to genetics services via telehealth: “Considerations for Policymakers to Improve Healthcare through Telegenetics: A Points to Consider Statement of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics,” highlighted the global consequences of the post-non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS) era with a particular focus on German regulations and implementation, and she co-authored the 2022 joint recommendation of ClinGen/CGC/VICC “Standards for the classification of pathogenicity of somatic variants in cancer (oncogenicity).” She is an expert member of various working groups and committees, such as ClinGen Somatic Cancer Clinical Domain Working Group and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) Economic Affairs Committee, to name a few. Dr. Williams has been recognized with several awards and accolades, including the ASCP “40 Under Forty” list, the ASCP “Lab Superstar Award,” and most recently, she was awarded an On Deck Fellowship (ODF) for early-stage startup leaders, where she is focused on advancing genomic diagnostic technologies by rebuilding the backbone of precision medicine through next-generation biobanking technologies.