Dr Williams

My inspiration for philanthropy came from wanting to help others in the community and to educate women that they could be powerful in their giving by collectively pooling their dollars together to support organizations that made a difference in the community. I co-founded the Sister Circle GKC 11 years ago. It started with the brainchild of one person that evolved into the brainchild of three, so there were four of us who had the initial conversation about what we could do to galvanize women in our community. For our first think tank, we had 100 women show up at the personal home of one of our friends. We told them we wanted to start a Black women's giving circle. Today, we are the largest Black women's giving circle in the four-state region, and we've given over $200,000 back to our community to nonprofit organizations. We've been able to service everything from education to healthcare to the arts, to leadership, to daycare, providing early childhood services for young people, and supporting organizations who are taking children on college tours. We open up the application process in March, and then the membership is able to look at the applications that are submitted. Based on what we believe is aligned with our mission and our purpose, an organization is selected, and every dollar that we collect goes to them. Our goal is always $20,000 a year, and there have been a couple of years that we've exceeded that, even during the pandemic. The most beautiful part is that there are women who want to belong to organizations, who want to show their love for their community and give back to those who have helped them. We only meet twice a year, in March for our kickoff and in August when we give the money away. That night, we start over again for the next giving cycle, and many people give that night, which gives us a jump start to move forward. In education, I've been in the field for over 50 years. My last tenure position was as a superintendent of schools, and I served in that capacity for 12 years. I was actually the first African American superintendent in this area, and for my particular school district, it was 100 years before they even had a woman in leadership at that level. Even though I'm no longer working directly in a role, I am an active resource in the community, serving on many boards that have educational components in the city. I've been appointed to a position by our city councilperson that deals with neighborhoods and education in the community. My work starts from pre-K to serving senior citizens in the area, making sure there are programs and information and knowledge available to them so they can continue to live a healthy life and feel that their contributions have not been forgotten in Kansas City. Being from Kansas City, I see many of my students that I taught in elementary school who are doing great things, and whenever there's something or a function going on, I always try to go and support them.