Meet Dr. Nicole Williams

Transforming Education Through Systemic Leadership

Dr. Williams has strived to make positive and lasting changes in public education for over three decades. Most recently, she served as Missouri's Saint Louis Public Schools (SLPS) interim superintendent. As a systems-level transformational leader, she cultivates the innovation, insight, trust, and collaboration needed to drive systemic change and ensure organizational/instructional coherence. As the chief of staff in SLPS, she was tasked with providing oversight and direction for the district’s strategic priorities, equity, family engagement, citywide planning, and designing transformational strategies for the organization. Dr. Williams also has experience serving in key senior-level leadership positions, including as a superintendent of schools in New York State and Illinois. Her expertise in educational leadership and pressing issues that impact it has positioned her as a consultant and adviser to superintendents, boards, school leadership teams, state senators, and elected officials.  As an award-winning leader and national presenter, Dr. Williams has shared her insights with several audiences, including the National Alliance of Black School Educators, Futures Institute, the International Center for Leadership in Education, and the New York State Council of School Superintendents’ Diversity and Inclusivity Commission to name a few. 

Dr. Williams is bilingual in Spanish and English. She holds a doctorate and a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education (with a doctorate concentration in the Urban Superintendents Program), (with a master’s concentration in bilingual education) and a bachelor’s degree in political science, both from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. She is married with an adult son and a seven-year-old grandson whom she adores.

Dr. Williams has devoted her life to serving communities and students across the United States. This passion commits her to addressing educational and technical solutions to meet diverse learner needs, particularly in the work of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).