Tonka Williams

Tonka Williams, MHA, BSN, RN, CMSRN, serves a three-year term as a director on the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) board of directors from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2024. She also serves a concurrent one-year term on the AACN Certification Corporation board from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024. She served a one-year term as treasurer on the AACN board from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.

Williams is nursing director of Medicine and Nursing Nutrition Support at VCU Health, Richmond, Virginia, where she oversees the acute/progressive care nursing medicine units, an ambulatory incarcerated medicine clinic and the nursing nutrition support team. An experienced nurse leader, she is focused on the integration of inpatient and outpatient services, and supports staff members in a patient-centered environment.

Her many volunteer activities with AACN include service on the AACN – AACN Certification Corporation Nominating Committee (July 2019-June 2020); a Beacon award reviewer (2017-2019); podium presenter on "Beacon: Why It Matters" at NTI 2017; reviewer for the Circle of Excellence chapter awards (2018, 2017); and a reviewer on the Evidence-based Poster Abstract Review Panel (2018, 2017). She has been a member of the Greater Richmond Area Chapter since 2012.

Additional affiliations include membership in the Virginia Nurses Association, American Nurses Association, American Organization for Nursing Leadership and the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses. Williams is also a member of the Scholarship Committee for the Virginia Organization of Nurse Executives and Leaders.

Among her awards, she was named the Virginia March of Dimes' Nurse of the Year for Nursing Administration in 2018, and she received an RN Excellence in Transformational Leadership award, presented during VCUHS Week of the Nurse in 2017.

Williams earned a Master of Health Administration at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, North Carolina, a Master of Science in Nursing from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro. She is a graduate of VCU's Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute.