Bryana Williams, MD, MPH

She/Her/Hers

What is your hometown?

Atlanta, Georgia

What are your career goals?

LGBTQ+ care, abortion care, gender medicine, adolescent medicine, and working with underserved populations

What attracted you to the Duke Family Medicine Residency Program?

Honestly, reading all the bios of the previous residents made me so excited to work here. I though "Wow, these are people I want to be friends with, but they're also physicians I want to be like."

In your opinion, what makes Duke Family Medicine special?

I think DFM excels in preventative care and community medicine. Even on my (virtual) interview day we spent a significant amount of time talking about the community of Durham and what it looks like to take care of a patients who have their health affected by their social situations. I also love the emphasis on outpatient medicine. There's also a huge push for taking care of the residents with self-care, mental health and recognizing that we are more than just machines for productivity.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

Finding new foods that my 1-year-old toddler will actually eat. Watching horror movies. Sunday dinners with my wife and parents. Listening to music that the Spotify algorithm has tailored to my soul.

What is something interesting that not many people know about you?

I consider myself a late-in-life gamer. In the past five years I've spent a bit of time on zombie story heavy RPGs like “The Last of Us” and “Dying Light.” I'm still terrible at driving games, but I love button smashing in Super Smash Brothers

So far, what has surprised you most about Duke?

Coming into intern year I feel like most folks feel like we don't know anything. Even after 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of medical school training it can still feel like we have no idea what's going on. I was expecting to start intern year at the bottom of the medical hierarchy. Yet I've been surprised at how collegial the medical staff are. Everyone from nurses and CNAs to attending physicians have been very supportive in navigating my role as a new physician and helping me learn to be better every day.