TSU Alumnus Kevin Williams Elected to AMA Board

Kevin W. Williams (’83) has been elected to a public member position with the American Medical Association, according to a recent announcement released by the 168-year-old organization.

A former senior executive with General Motors, Williams joins the nation’s largest and most prominent physician organization on its 21-member board which sets standards and policy for the medical profession. He is only the fourth person to hold the public member position on the governing board, which added the first public member to its Board of Trustees in 2002. Williams will begin his four-year term at the conclusion of the AMA Annual Meeting in June 2016.

“Mr. Williams brings a wealth of knowledge and skills to the AMA board from his private sector career as a high-level leader with national and international business experience,” said Stephen R. Permut, M.D., AMA Board chair, in a release. “We look forward to his new perspectives that will help enrich our continuing efforts to address the leading health care issues facing our nation.”

Over the course of his 31-year career at GM, Williams accumulated extensive experience where he held numerous global roles. Most recently, he served as board chairman, president and managing director of General Motors (GM) of Canada Ltd. He also served as president and managing director of GM de Mexico, and GM North American vice president of quality.

Williams began his GM career in 1983 as a reliability analyst at Buick City in Flint, Michigan, and over the years he took on diverse key leadership roles as global executive director of Supplier Quality; global executive director of Supplier Quality, Development, and Supplier Diversity for Worldwide Purchasing; and executive director of Supplier Quality for GM Europe with responsibilities spanning 22 countries and 1,500 employees.

Williams has a demonstrated passion for giving back. He is a board member of the United Negro College Fund Foundation, a former trustee of Genesys Health System of Michigan, a former chairman of the Society of Automotive Engineers’ A World in Motion Advisory Committee, and continues to support his alma mater by serving on the TSU Foundation Board of Trustees.

A native of Lexington Park, Maryland, Williams earned a bachelor’s in Business Management from Tennessee State University in 1983 and a master’s in Business Administration from Central Michigan University in 1989. In 2002, Williams completed the GM Senior Executive Development Program.

About Tennessee State University

With more than 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.

Source: C. Buggs, Tennessee State University Department of Media Relations