2011 Outstanding AlumnA Award Winner
In April, Dr. Williams-Cleaves fulfilled a dream when she opened the Comprehensive Diabetes and Metabolic Center of Excellence. Housed in the Good Heath Institute in Memphis, the center is a one-stop shop for patients with diabetes and other metabolic disorders.
She continues to serve as an associate professor in the division of endocrinology at the UT Health Science Center, and she also leads the endocrine outpatient clinics at the MedPlex Clinic.
Continually noted as one of the “Best Doctors in America,” Dr. Williams-Cleaves first thought she would translate her love of math into a career as a mathematician. By high school, “I was labeled as the counselor,” she says. “I became a source of advice for my close-knit group of girlfriends, so I started thinking about a career in psychiatry.”
A graduate of Manassas High School, the North Memphis native continued her education at Howard University. She received her medical degree from UT Memphis in 1969.
With two older sisters who also graduated from Manassas as her role models, Dr. Williams-Cleaves says, “We always knew we had the support and encouragement of our parents regarding our higher education pursuits.
“After moving us to Memphis, my father was a stellar factory employee who was never late for work for 25 years. In the fifth grade, he was taken out of school, much to his chagrin, by his grandfather because he was needed as a full-time worker in the cotton and soybean fields. He loved school; he told us on many occasions that if we desired to go to school he would work hard and even borrow money, if necessary, to make sure we had the opportunity he never had. He never fell short of his commitment to himself and his children.”
During her internship and residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Dr. Williams-Cleaves “fell madly in love” with the deductive reasoning applied in internal medicine. “During a lecture I had an epiphany that pointed very clearly and exclusively to endocrinology,” she says. “I think my love of physiology and organic chemistry provided an appreciation for such a beautifully created system of organized hormonal pathways.
“Diabetes is the most common endocrinological disease and has such potential for treatment and prevention with lifestyle adjustments.”
From facilitating community health fairs to organizing educational outreach programs, Dr. Williams-Cleaves is known as a diabetes expert who gives back to her community through such organizations as the American Diabetes Association, the Healthy Memphis Common Table, and the Bluff City Medical Society.
Dr. Williams-Cleaves attributes her giving spirit to her mother, who was “always gracious. She was always teaching us to be respectful and forever grateful for whatever anyone did for us.”
She says, “The best two presents I have received are my salvation through Jesus Christ and my family.”
She and her husband of 24 years and partner in many “life projects,” Calvin, are blessed with three children and two grandchildren.
View Past Medicine Award Winners