Joy Ann Williams (June 13, 1961 – November 18, 2016) was an American immunologist at the National Cancer Institute where she researched the biology of thymic development.

[4] As a graduate student, she worked at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a pre-doctoral Intramural Research Training Award fellow in the Laboratory of Genetics under Dr. Michael Potter.

She then worked as a biologist under her graduate mentor, Emily Shacter, first in the Laboratory of Genetics, and later in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

The year after earning her Ph.D., Williams joined the laboratory of Richard Hodes in NCI's Experimental Immunology Branch as a postdoctoral fellow.

In 2006, Williams’ interest in basic research brought her back to Hodes’ lab at National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a staff scientist.