In 1986, when Damon L. Williams, Jr., was seven years previous, he and his household acquired an invite to attend his pal’s celebration at an area {golfing} nation membership. He had been very excited to attend, till the week of the occasion.
“We obtained uninvited, as a result of Blacks weren’t allowed within the nation membership,” says Williams.
Damon L. Williams, Jr.
Williams says he wasn’t harm when he learn the nation membership’s by-laws and rules—moderately, he was confused.
“I didn’t perceive why all people didn’t have entry. And I used to be decided to have entry,” says Williams.
Williams’s mother and father had met throughout their time at Southern and A&M Faculty, a traditionally Black faculty and college (HBCU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They shared their convictions with their two sons, together with the significance of schooling and social service. Williams was raised Catholic and attended personal establishments—he was usually the one Black pupil in his class, or one of many few.
That have with the nation membership helped open Williams’s eyes. He started to see exclusion in every single place, not only for himself, however for others who had been marginalized. He grew to become what he calls “a pupil for everyone.”
“I made certain everybody had entry, particularly my Black classmates and mates,” says Williams.
Tapping into entry grew to become a deliberate determination. Williams understood the potentials of social capital, and he methodically and patiently expanded entry for himself and others by attending to know everybody he might. He met native leaders and philanthropists, increasing his world via intentional group constructing. He was so profitable, in actual fact, that by the point he graduated from highschool, Williams had achieved entry to the identical nation membership that barred him attributable to his race. Williams didn’t rejoice his achievement alone—he introduced all his Black mates with him as they broke the barrier on the membership.
“We obtained to the nation membership. We disrupted that,” says Williams, with a hearty chortle. “I don’t know if we had fun, however no less than we have been in the home.”
Serving to others
It’s this attribute of himself, his want to construct entry for these uncared for by the bigger story, that ultimately led him to his present position as affiliate vice chairman and chief of workers within the Workplace for Neighborhood Relations on the College of Kentucky (UK).
However all alongside the best way, Williams has labored at each private and non-private establishments—HBCUs and Predominantly White Establishments—which have change into prime producers of minoritized college students.
It took him awhile to attach the dots from his ardour to greater schooling. His first ambition after faculty was to make cash, and he entered the company world and earned his MBA from Fontbonne College. Williams discovered nice success in enterprise, however on the identical time, felt the results of imposter syndrome. He usually discovered himself as the primary and the one individual in boardrooms. He was nonetheless intrinsically motivated to increase the ladder of success to these with much less entry, however he felt lonely in that purpose.
“I wished to be socially simply, to do the most effective for everybody, but in addition make cash,” he recollects. “Everybody didn’t really feel that manner.”
It’s why, in his late twenties, he selected to volunteer at Georgia State College (GSU), talking to younger faculty college students about his successes. These lectures grew to become a basic first step into his profession in greater schooling, and in 2008, he grew to become particular assistant to the director of the TRIO packages at GSU, a collection of federally funded packages that help low-income, first-generation, or in any other case minoritized college students attend and graduate faculty. Williams took a pay reduce leaving the company world, however he knew it was value it.
From there, Williams’s profession took off. In 2009, he returned to his undergraduate alma mater, Xavier College in New Orleans, an HBCU and the one Black Catholic establishment on the planet. Williams grew to become the director of the Profession Development Heart, the place he would spend the subsequent 5 years inviting first era, low-income college students, girls, LGBTQ+, and different under-represented undergraduates into pursuing their graduate levels. His dedication to the work would ultimately improve pupil placement charge for Xavier by 50%, constructing a pipeline to each Ivy League establishments and regional or native graduate faculties.
Williams admits that Xavier holds a particular place in his coronary heart. Xavier, he says, is a spot that “expects excellence,” but in addition is aware of college students should be supported in the direction of that purpose. In his sophomore yr of school, Williams had begun to battle academically and financially, however the management and college at Xavier gave him the chance to proceed his schooling.
Dr. Dereck J. Rovaris, Sr., now retired, is a fellow Xavier alum who spent 21 years working at Xavier within the workplace of Graduate Placement. He obtained to know Williams whereas he was an undergraduate on the faculty.
“Xavier was all the pieces for us—a tiny faculty by faculty requirements, but it surely’s executed superb work to get college students to see their potential and actualize it,” says Rovaris.
Rovaris says that Xavier was the crucial “catalyst” for each him and Williams “within the winery of getting significantly under-represented undergraduates to pursue graduate levels.”
“Damon has all the time been in a position to get college students excited concerning the potential of graduate research,” stated Rovaris, who notes that Williams’s capacity to captivate and inspire college students makes him really feel like “a proud papa.”
Dr. Vernon Dunn, director of The Grainger Basis Frontiers of Engineering on the Nationwide Academy of Engineers, first met Williams at one of many summer season packages Williams ran at Xavier. Dunn selected to attend Xavier as an undergraduate with hopes of turning into a medical physician. However the extra time he spent learning the sphere, the much less satisfied he was that it was the proper alternative for him. Williams, stated Dunn, was in a position to present a listening ear, alternatives, and connections.
“He lined me up with nice connectors that guided me to and thru graduate faculty. He was the rationale I made a decision to get a Ph.D. That wasn’t imagined to occur,” says Dunn. “It was no the place on my radar, and it turned out to be the most effective match for me.”
Dunn says he speaks with Williams every day, in search of recommendation on managing individuals, navigating areas, and the best way to greatest lead his program of younger engineers. Williams units a excessive bar, Dunn says, asking those that work for and with him to concentrate to the little issues, to get the work executed on or earlier than deadline. However, Dunn provides, Williams can be all the time able to loosen the tie and get to know the individuals he works with.
“I respect having Damon, a Black man, being direct with me and never sugar coating issues. I wanted someone like him to say, ‘No, it is advisable do that,’ or, ‘That’s a waste of time, apply to those faculties, speak to this individual.’ I wanted that direct, strategic method to my development to make me achieve success,” says Dunn. “I’m very grateful of the place I’m immediately, due to him.”
Forging strategic partnerships
Williams’s capacity to attach HBCU college students to graduate packages caught the eye of Emory College, the place he could be recruited in 2014 because the director of Range, Neighborhood and Recruitment. In his three years there, he created the Workplace of Range, Inclusion, and Neighborhood in Emory’s Graduate College and the Emory Diversifying Graduate Training (EDGE) program. At Emory, he created over 100 inside and exterior initiatives, recruiting plans that focused under-represented and worldwide college students. Purposes from under-represented college students elevated by 10% throughout his first tutorial yr.
As his status grew, Williams was recruited by Northwestern College, the place he served as assistant dean of range and inclusion between 2017 and 2021, after which till 2022 because the Fairness, Range, and Inclusion lead of Northwestern’s Public Well being Program. His efforts helped to result in the commencement of probably the most various class within the historical past of Northwestern.
“We doubled range attraction, admittance, retention, and commencement throughout the time I used to be there,” he says. “We did some nice work.”
Williams is fast to say ‘we,’ desperate to share the credit score with these whose dedication and repair helped him and his workplace obtain their bold targets. Northwestern, he says, is a spot with an incredible range of packages and concepts, thought, and self-discipline.
“Due to the dean leads, the vice provost, the crew members working with me, we have been in a position to do nice issues with college and college fellows. I wanted them to talk the language [of diversity,]” says Williams. “I used to be a conductor, an architect there, and folks purchased into the mission.”
Via the efforts of his division, Williams says he was in a position to recruit and retain a whole class of graduating college students to pursue their graduate levels at Northwestern. The establishment now has a Hispanic Serving Establishment (HSIs) initiative and companions with HSIs. Northwestern additionally now has an HBCU pipeline program with HBCUs Spelman Faculty, Howard College, and Xavier. Williams’s time there refined his philosophy on range.
“Once you need to do range, it’s important to have intentionality. Go searching. Who don’t you see? You don’t see girls? Go get girls, go to the place they’re. Don’t see a inhabitants of veterans? Go get them!” he says. “That’s my philosophy. Transfer it ahead—disrupt it. If you happen to’re not able to disrupt it, you’re not able to do it.”
That philosophy, and his dedication to attaining his targets, impressed Dr. Katrice Albert, a veteran greater schooling administrator, to ask him to contemplate becoming a member of her the place she serves as vice chairman of group relations at UK.
The request, she says, appeared to take Williams unexpectedly.
“He stated, ‘Kentucky?’” she says with amusing.
Albert, one other Xavier alum, first obtained to know Williams when he would deliver potential graduate college students from Xavier to Louisiana State College, the place she beforehand served as vice chairman for Fairness, Range, and Neighborhood Outreach. They reconnected at a Xavier homecoming, the place Williams sought out her recommendation on his profession trajectory. Neither of them might predict again then that they might find yourself working collectively within the Bluegrass State.
“Our self-discipline is difficult. And it’s all the time been exhausting. It’s not straightforward to do inclusive excellence work in greater schooling. And what strikes me about [Damon] is just not solely the power to do very exhausting work and make it look straightforward to others, however to have this humor that brings individuals nearer to him, this aura, this good spirit,” says Albert. “[Damon] has an ethical context that claims, ‘Sure, that is exhausting, however we’re colleagues and we will do that exhausting work collectively. And have a superb time doing it.’”
Albert calls his capacity to attach throughout a number of sectors an “important ability” and a “management competency,” one that pulls individuals in and engages them in troublesome work.
“He’s very dedicated to Ok-12, in ensuring these people in Ok-12 perceive they’ll have a trajectory right through graduate schooling,” says Albert. “He’s not afraid to begin younger and know it’s important to pour into these individuals for a very long time. it’s not fast.”
It’s the deliberate pouring into others, the nurturing of others and their targets, that may usually decelerate the non-public goals of upper schooling leaders who’ve an “an ethos of care,” Albert says. It’s one of many causes that Williams has taken so long as he has to formally pursue his Ed.D., which he’s expects to defend in 2026 at New York College.
“When you’re so people-centered, your entire world is revolving round seeing different individuals attain their greatness, so that you spend restricted quantities of time working in the direction of your individual radical skilled targets and your individual radical self-care,” says Albert. “This man is so targeted on serving to others attain heights they won’t have even imagined for themselves, he sacrifices time, power, analysis, effort, and social capital for others.”
It’s one of many causes Albert has pushed Williams to place himself first and to finish his terminal diploma.
“I’ve visions of grandeur, seeing him rise to a college president, or the CEO of a serious basis or assume tank dedicated to academic outcomes and shutting achievement gaps,” says Albert.
For Williams, his targets are extra modest, in the mean time. He says he’s occupied with vice presidential roles, or different positions that permit him to proceed rising and creating entry and alternatives. He’s impressed by the guideposts set for him by civil rights leaders of the previous, artists and writers like James Baldwin, whose face adorns an unlimited poster in his properly embellished workplace.
In late August 2024, the position Williams initially took at UK (affiliate vice chairman of institutional range and chief of workers) was renamed. In actual fact, the entire division was disbanded, altering the positions of roughly 150 college members whose titles included “range.” It was a transfer made by President Eli Capilouto in an effort to guard range, fairness, and inclusion roles and institutional targets from legislative assaults and a focus.
“We’re in a nuanced panorama proper now. The mission is identical, bringing many individuals collectively in a single group. We simply must reframe how we do it,” says Williams. “We have a look at native lives, regionally, and nationally. Our slogan is taking good care of individuals, making Kentucky more healthy, wealthier, and wiser, all 120 counties. Each Kentuckian deserves to like UK.”
Williams recollects one among his early journeys via Kentucky, when he first contemplated taking a task there. It was 2020, shortly after the homicide of26-year-old Breonna Taylor.
Williams appeared taken by the spirit of Ida B. Wells, the pioneering journalist and activist, who would journey to harmful counties after a lynching in pursuit of a narrative. He drove to town of Louisville the place Taylor had lived and was killed by the hands of law enforcement officials who compelled entry into her house. On his drive again house, an commercial on Pandora radio suggested him that the Velocity Artwork Museum was adjoining to the College of Louisville campus, and, as an avid artwork lover, Williams determined to cease by. As he toured via the work and displays on show, he turned a nook and was stunned to see the face of Taylor, painted by artist Amy Sherald, staring again at him from the top of the corridor. Williams says he instantly burst into tears.
There, as he sat on a stool in entrance of Taylor, clothed in Tiffany blue with a defiant hand on her hip, Williams wrote a missive for himself that he follows to today. “I promised to proceed the work,” says Williams. “Breonna is anchoring me to proceed to do the work.”
