Mass EQLHS Scholar Alumni

During Scholar Tenure:

Faculty Neurosurgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School

Chair, Surgical Ethics Working Group, HMS Center for Bioethics

Home Institution: Massachusetts General Hospital

Health System: Mass General Brigham

Beginning Nov 1, 2025:

Director, Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Brown University Health

Director, Neural Injury and Repair Center, Brown University Health

theresa williamson, md

Project Title: Values in Decision Modeling in Lumbar Spondylolisthesis Treatment

Mass EQLHS Graduation Date: September 30, 2025

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. 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.

Project Publications:

  1. Duerr E, Rodriguez E, Nephtalem M, Mensah E, Duffy JR, Cha T, Aidlen J, Tannoury C, Perloff MD, Ladin K, Hao D, Williamson T. Perspectives on treatment decision-making across racial groups in adults with degenerative lumbar disease - A pilot study. Interv Pain Med. 2025 Jun 3;4(2):100596. doi: 10.1016/j.inpm.2025.100596. PMID: 40519793; PMCID: PMC12167451

  2. Yoseph, E. T., Taiwo, R., Kiapour, A., Touponse, G., Massaad, E., Theologitis, M., Wu, J. Y., Williamson, T., & Zygourakis, C. C. (2025)Pregnancy-Related Spinal Biomechanics: A Review of Low Back Pain and Degenerative Spine Disease. Bioengineering (Basel). 2025;12(8):858. Published 2025 Aug 10. doi:10.3390/bioengineering12080858

  3. Piper, K., Magdamo, B., Momin, A., Kelly, P. D., Carey, P., Haque, R., Basto, J. B. T., Saway, B., Schupper, A., Duffy, J. R., Williamson, T., & Evans, J. How Do Neurosurgeons Cope With Complications? Results of a Nationwide Survey. Neurosurgery. Published online August 14, 2025. doi:10.1227/neu.0000000000003671

  4. Nelson JW, Schwartz CI, Williamson T, et al. A Multinational Observational Study of Nurse Work Wellbeing: A Research Protocol for the Caring Science International Collaborative. Worldviews Evid Based Nurs. 2025;22(3):e70053. doi:10.1111/wvn.70053