Loretta Jackson-Williams, MD, PhD
Senior Vice President of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Jackson-Williams currently serves as the Vice Dean for Medical Education at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine (SOM) where she has been a faculty member for over 20 years. Since 2019 she has been a Senior Vice President of Emergency Medicine for OPYS Physician Services, LLC.
While at the University of Mississippi SOM she has been dedicated to medical education by being engaged in the educational programs as a clerkship director, an assistant program director, and as a member of the SOM Curriculum Committee. In 2008 she joined the administrative office for the SOM and became chair of the SOM Curriculum Committee. Throughout this time she has remained committed to delivering an exceptional educational program to produce competent, capable, and compassionate physicians.
For the past 2 years, she has also served as the Faculty Accreditation Lead and guided the school through the reaccreditation process with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). The LCME sets standards for all allopathic medical education programs. This accreditation is necessary for continued access to licensure exams by students, for eligibility to ACGME residency programs and state medial licensure for graduates of the program, and for access to federal grants and loans for students and the school. This year the school achieved full accreditation of the medical education program for the full eight year term.
Since 2014, Dr. Jackson-Williams has served with selected colleagues around the nation on the MCAT Validity Studies Committee. The committee was organized to develop, implement, and communicate a research plan regarding the MCAT exam that was introduced in 2015. The various work groups from this committee have produced a number of work products that continue to guide students through the preparation process for this examination.
Loretta Jackson-Williams grew up in Indianola, MS, where she attended the local public high school. She completed her undergraduate studies at Tougaloo College with a degree in chemistry in 1987. In 1994 she completed the MD/PhD program at Boston University School of Medicine. Her residency training in Emergency Medicine was completed in 1998 at Highland Hospital of Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, CA. She and her husband have two children and have been back in Mississippi since 1999.