Taylor Williamson

Taylor Williamson has nearly 20 years of experience leading business development efforts, managing programs, developing strategy, and conducting health systems research. He has more than a decade of supervisory experience as a project manager or technical lead for five U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded projects. Williamson focuses on decentralization and local governance, information systems, health insurance design, public policy, and capacity strengthening. He has experience with such health systems challenges as improving data quality and data use at national and sub-national levels; reducing service barriers for HIV, and neglected tropical diseases; assessing and improving civil society and local government capacity; and strengthening decentralization. He has published several manuscripts and working papers on civil society capacity strengthening, advocacy, evidence use, decentralization, and human rights.

Williamson is the client account director for health systems strengthening. He is responsible for managing the health systems strengthening business development pipeline, identifying and leading opportunities, and ensuring the technical quality of capture and proposal products.

Before coming to Abt, Williamson served in several roles of increasing responsibility at RTI International. He started out as a health governance specialist, then was a manager of health systems, and then senior manager for health systems. He led RTI’s role on the Health Policy Plus (HP+), Rwanda Integrated Health Services Activity (RIHSA), and Country Health Information Systems and Data Use (CHISU) projects. Before RTI, Williamson was CHF International’s (now Global Communities) HIV capacity building technical advisor in Rwanda.

Expertise

• Health Systems Strengthening
• Capacity Development
• Local Governance
• Social Accountability
• Health Financing

Key Projects

• Country Health Information Systems and Data Use
• Rwanda Integrated Health Systems Activity (RTI)
• Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases | East
• Health Policy Project and Health Policy Plus (RTI)
• Health Systems 20/20 (RTI)

Publications

• Gasana C., Williamson R.T., Bayisenge U., Rukundo J.C., Gashayija M., Kamuhangire M., Ntihabose C., Atwine J., Nsengiyumva T., Hakiba S., & Niyongabo B. (2024) Twinning Partnership Network: A Learning and Experience-Sharing Network Among Health Professionals in Rwanda to Improve Health Services, Global Health: Science and Practice October 2024, 12(5):e2300280; DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-23-00280
• Jessani N.S., Williamson R.T., Choonara S., Gautier L., Hoe C., Jafar S.K., Khalid F.A., Rodríguez Salas I., Turcotte-Tremblay A.M., & Rodríguez D.C. (2022) Evidence attack in public health: Diverse actors’ experiences with translating controversial or misrepresented evidence in health policy and systems research, Global Public Health, DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2021.2020319
• Brinkerhoff D.W., Cross H., Sharma, S., & Williamson R.T. (2019). Stewardship and Health Systems Strengthening: An Overview. Public Administration and Development, 2019(39), 4–10. doi: 10.1002/pad.1846
• Williamson R.T. & Fiscian, V., Olson, R.U., Poku, F.N., and Whittal, J. (2017). A reporting system to protect the human rights of people living with HIV and key populations. Health and Human Rights Journal, 2(16), 211–221
• Williamson, R.T., & Rodd, J. (2016). Civil society advocacy in Nigeria: Promoting democratic norms or donor demands? BMC International Health and Human Rights, 16(19), e1–e10. doi: 10.1186/s12914-016-0093-z