Khaliah Williams

I ended up in the nonprofit sector because I come from a family of philanthropists and civic engagement leaders. When I finished up undergrad, I wound up in the classroom, and my mission was always to support post-secondary attainment. After careers in sales, I found an opportunity after I completed my graduate work at KIXC TV Channel 9 in a rural part of California, and that's what solidified this direction. I was the volunteer and outreach coordinator for the PBS network, which was my springboard into fund development. During COVID, I ended up back in sales as a stopgap, but now I realize it was part of my leadership development training to get me where I am right now. I ended up at Nordstrom during the pandemic, starting at Nordstrom downtown Portland, Oregon. I was promoted and moved to Arizona, where I led women's shoes to number one in the company at a 21 million dollar door. I had a dynamic international team of 50 employees and was able to cultivate first-time veteran salespeople to first-time pace-setters during my tenure in 2021-22. Currently, I am an executive director for a legacy nonprofit in Dayton, Ohio, serving the Miami Valley and Montgomery County. My responsibility is to raise funds to continue providing our signature programming, which has been developing leaders in the Black community for over 30 years. This organization was founded in 1989, and one of the founders was Charity Adams Early, who was the highest-ranking Black woman in the Army during the war and was recently portrayed by Kerry Washington in the Netflix film. My responsibility is to tell the story of Charity's legacy in service to Parity Inc and keep our programs going. I just arrived in October, so I'm at my 6-month mark.