Theresa Williamson, MD

Theresa Williamson, MD, is a neurosurgeon and surgical ethics researcher who cares for people with all types of spine disorders as well as brain and spinal trauma.  Her clinical expertise includes tailoring an approach to best fit the patient and their disease including using minimally invasive techniques. Her research focus is neurosurgical decision-making and patient-doctor communication as well as health care disparities.  She combines bioethics theory with empirical data science to tackle complex decision-making problems in neurosurgery.  Dr. Williamson is a member of the Center for Outcomes and Patient Safety in Surgery (COMPASS) at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Williamson comes to MGH from Duke University.  At Duke, she completed a neurosurgery residency.  She then completed an intramural fellowship at Duke as part of the combined neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery complex spine fellowship approved by the Committee on Advanced Subspecialty Training (CAST).  Her clinical skills were recognized when she was named the Resident Clinician of the Year (2017) and her leadership skills were recognized with the Leadership Award (2020).  She completed the University of Chicago Maclean and American College of Surgeons Surgical Ethics Fellowship (2021).  She is a graduate of the Yale School of Medicine (2014) and Yale College (2009) where she was a varsity soccer player.