Penny Williamson

Penny R. Williamson, ScD is an internationally recognized facilitator, educator and coach for leaders and organizations in health care. She is a founding facilitator and mentor for the national Center for Courage & Renewal and Associate Professor of Medicine, Retired, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Since 1998, Penny has led Courage to Lead, a national leadership development program for leaders in health care and other serving professions. She has developed and led additional multi-retreat courage programs within health care organizations, as well as freestanding reflective retreats in the United States, Japan, Canada, and the UK,  exploring domains such as life transitions, and living and leading authentically. Penny’s latest work makes use of creative modalities and place as teacher, exploring how the natural environment, movement, the visual arts, music and embodied presence add to individual discernment and collective wisdom.

Penny has played a major role in large-scale change efforts in relationship-centered culture building, working with individuals, leadership teams and healthcare organizations.   Penny is co-author, with Darcy Shaw, of the book “Writing Together: A Year of Meeting-Making and Friendship, Creative Courage Press, 2025.