Commencement

Angela F. Williams

President and CEO, United Way Worldwide

Named to the 2021 Forbes 50 Over 50: Impact list of women creating social change at scale and honored with a 2021 CEO Today Healthcare Award, Angela F. Williams is president and CEO of United Way Worldwide, the world’s largest privately funded nonprofit. 

With more than 30 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit and corporate sectors, Williams brings a long history of purpose-driven work to her role at United Way. Most recently, she was president and CEO of Easterseals. Before joining Easterseals, she spent 11 years as EVP, general counsel and chief administration officer at YMCA of the USA.

Williams was raised in a military family, which influenced her decision to serve on active duty in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than six years following her graduation from the University of Texas School of Law. This experience, which occurred during a time when few Black women served in the JAG Corps, was foundational to her commitment to service.

Williams’ other leadership roles in government include serving on Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate Judiciary Committee as special counsel on criminal law, serving as a prosecutor on the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s National Church Arson Task Force and serving as an assistant U.S. attorney.

In the corporate world, Williams was vice president and deputy general counsel for Sears Holdings Corporation, as well as chief compliance and ethics officer, after working at the law firm Bryan Cave.

In 2006, immediately before joining the YMCA, Williams was interfaith liaison for the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, a nonprofit organization formed to provide critically needed donations to assist the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

A native of Anderson, South Carolina, Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in American government from the University of Virginia, a juris doctor from the University of Texas School of Law and a master of divinity, cum laude, from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University.

Williams resides in Chicago with her husband, Rev. Roderick Williams. She is a volunteer pastor at the Chicago Apostolic Center.