Damon A Williams

Damon A. Williams, PhD is a higher education administrator and author of Strategic Diversity Leadership: Activating Change and Transformation in Higher Education, The Chief Diversity Officer: Strategy, Structure, and Change Management, and Towards a Model of Inclusive Excellence and Change in Post-Secondary Education. He has served as Associate Vice Chancellor and Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since August 2008. Williams was the first full-time Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate at UW-Madison, where he also serves as Chief diversity officer. In 2010, his duties were expanded and his title changed to Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer, also using the title Associate Vice Chancellor, as he assumed leadership for the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement. In addition to his full-time role as Vice Provost, Williams also holds a clinical faculty appointment with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. Williams' work is focused on inclusive excellence, strategic planning for diversity, chief diversity officers, academic engagement, youth development, urban program evaluation, hip-hop scholarship, college and universities as complex organizations, and organizational change.
Background and Education
Williams was born on March 22, 1972 in Springfield, Ohio and raised in Dayton, Ohio. As a teenager he attended Western Reserve Academy boarding school. After graduating in 1990 he began his undergraduate studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He graduated in 1994 with a Bachelors of Science in Sociology and Black World Studies. He received a Masters degree in Leadership Development & Organizational Dynamics in 1996, also from Miami University in the College Student Personnel Services program. In 2002 he received his doctorate in organizational behavior and management from the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Higher and Post-Secondary Education.
Career
While completing his masters degree at Miami University, Williams was a Freedom School Coordinator for the During his PhD studies at the University of Michigan, Williams was a research and project associate for the Associate Provost and Director of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives (OAMI), providing leadership in the development and execution of strategic diversity initiatives for the University. He held this position from 1997 to 2002, when he was hired by the University of Connecticut to be the Assistant Vice Provost in the Office of the Vice Provost for Multicultural and International Affairs. While there he developed and led initiatives on inclusive excellence, campus climate, recruitment and retention, and diversity and learning. In 2008, Williams left the University of Connecticut to become the Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison Efforts
As chief diversity officer, Dr. Williams continues his efforts in strategic diversity and inclusion initiatives spanning a number of areas including recruitment and retention, youth development and pre-college outreach, teaching and learning, marketing and communication, training and leadership development, research and scholarship, and other areas of priority for universities diversity and excellence interests. Dr. Williams continues to work on new faculty diversity efforts, closing the achievement gap initiatives and gateway course curriculum reform efforts.
Most recently Dr. Williams developed and oversaw the strategic realignment of diversity offices on the UW-Madison campus, creating for the first time a centralized office from which campus diversity efforts would be directed.His portfolio includes one of the nation's most comprehensive k-16 pipeline development programs, the worlds only hip-hop urban arts scholarship learning community, intergroup dialogue programs, the nation's most prominent partnership with the National Posse Foundation, and others. A major initiative launched in 2012 was a new partnership with MCLyte, the Hip-Hop Sister Network, and Russell Simmons, as he played a key role launching a new [http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hip-hop-goes-to-the-university-of-wisconsin-madison-mc-lyte-russell-simmons-melanie-fiona-salt-dr-damon-williams-and-global-grind-announce-the-search-for-the-1st-mc-lytefirst-wave-100000-scholarship-award-recipient-168520076.html/ $100,000 Hip-Hop Scholarship as part of the UW-Madison First-Wave Program, the world's only hip-hop urban arts scholarship learning community]. In 2013, he launched a new creativity and non-profit leadership initiative working with young children at the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County that will place college students in the community, working with young people to develop their creative, academic, and artistic abilities. He also launched a new leadership development initiative that places high importance on securing internships in the new economy, as a way of counterbalancing the negative effects of the new economy on first-generation and economically diverse college students.
National Diversity Efforts
Williams was a founding member of the editorial board of the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, a joint publication of the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE), and American Council on Education. Dr. Williams also served as scholar-in-residence for the for three years. Additionally, he was the lead author for a Ford Foundation-funded monograph on the future of diversity work in higher education entitled Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence and Change in Higher Education. Dr. Williams is a former member of the AACU Diversity Digest Advisory Board, and is co-principal investigator of “Chief Diversity Officer Study in Higher Education” and the article "" Dr. Williams also co-authored two books about chief diversity officers with Dr. Katrina Wade-Golden of the University of Michigan: The Chief Diversity Officer: A Primer for Presidential Leadership (2008) and The Chief Diversity Officer: Strategy, Structure, and Change Management (2013). He is currently a senior scholar working with the ACE Fellows program, as part of his duties on the national board for Equity and Inclusion, as well as for the AACU High Impact Practices Institute. He is also the author of The Role of Chief Diversity Officers in Academic Medicine with the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Major Publications
* Williams, D. (2013). A matter of excellence: A presidential guide to strategic diversity leadership and accountability in higher education. Washington, DC: American Council of Education (ACE).
*Williams, D. (2013). Strategic diversity leadership: Activating change and transformation in higher education. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
* Williams, D. & Wade-Golden K. (2013). The chief diversity officer: Strategy, structure, and change management. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
* Williams, D. (2012). The role of chief diversity officers in academic medicine. Washington, DC: American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC).
* Williams, D. & Wade-Golden, K. (2008). “The complex mandate of the chief diversity officer.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Volume 55, Issue 5, Page B44. Washington, DC.
* Williams, D. (2008). “Beyond the diversity crises model: Developing a decentralized campus diversity planning and implementation process.” Planning for Higher Education. Ann Arbor, MI: Society of College and University Planning.
* Williams, D. & Wade-Golden, K. (2008). The chief diversity officer: A primer for presidential leadership. Washington, DC: American Council of Education.
* Williams, D. (2007). “Achieving inclusive excellence. Strategies for achieving real and sustainable changes in quality and diversity.” About Campus, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 8-14.
* Williams, D. & Clowney, C. (2007). “Strategic planning for diversity and organizational change: A primer for higher education leadership.” Effective Practices for Academic Leaders, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 1-16.
* Williams, D., Berger J., and McClendon, S. (2005). Towards a model of inclusive excellence and change in post-secondary institutions. Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges and Universities.
* Williams, D. (2005, May). “Seven recommendations for highly effective senior diversity officers.” Diverse Issues in Higher Education, pp. 52, Fairfax, VA: Cox, Mathews, and Associates.

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