About Me

Richard Williams is a 27-year veteran of the Food and Drug Administration who specializes in economic and risk analyses in food safety and nutrition. He believes in one thing:

Public health without politics.

That boils down to: no matter whose policy it is, if it works, he’s for it, if it doesn’t, he’s against it.

While at FDA, he created a series of risk analysis classes that have now been taught to government employees around the world. He also was responsible for estimating the benefits of the food label and helped to craft a better exemption for small businesses from those rules.  While at FDA, Williams examined the costs and benefits of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) for seafood and juices. While the benefit-cost analyses helped to make some of the rules better at a lower cost to consumers, FDA’s food safety and nutrition rules have mostly failed to make food safer or provide consumers with useful guidance in choosing healthy foods. 

Currently serving on advisory boards to the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS) and the chairman of the board for the Center for Truth in Science, Dr. Williams previously served on the Science Advisory Board for the U.S. EPA.   He has lectured on economics and risk analysis in several countries including Australia, Korea, Yugoslavia, and England.  

After a combat tour in Vietnam in 1970, Richard attended Old Dominion University majoring first in English, then detouring to economics.  He earned his Ph.D in economics from Virginia Tech.  

Williams’ editorials on food safety, nutrition and risks have been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald, Politico, US News and World Report, Chicago Sun Times, and the New York Daily News and has appeared on both radio stations and television in the U.S.    

After nearly a decade as a Vice President for Policy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Richard decided to go back to English and write Fixing Food. Between being an avid traveler, reader, biker, hiker, and poor golfer, he finds time for a little amateur woodworking. Richard lives with his wife Christine in McLean, Virginia.