Angela Williams Keynote Speaker

Former CEO & President of United Way Worldwide
Forbes’ 2021 List of Women 50 Over 50 Creating Social Change at Scale
Attorney and advocate for the health, education and financial stability of every person in every community.

Angela Williams's Biography

Angela F. Williams is the former President and CEO of United Way Worldwide. She was named to Forbes’ 2021 List of Women 50 Over 50 Creating Social Change at Scale, and presented with a 2021 CEO Today Healthcare Award.

Williams previously served as president and CEO of Easterseals, the nation’s leading nonprofit provider of lifechanging disability services and powerful advocacy for its 1.5 million clients of all ages, including veterans and seniors. Entering its second century, Williams’ goals were to increase Easterseals’ growth, bolster its impact, expand its services, and advance disability equity in healthcare, education, and employment for the one in four people living with disability today.

Before that, she was executive vice president, 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 Corps (JAG) for more than six years following her graduation from the University of Texas School of Law. This experience, when few Black women served in the JAG Corps, was foundational to her commitment to service.

Her other leadership roles in government include serving on Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate Judiciary Committee staff as special counsel on criminal law, prosecutor on the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s National Church Arson Task Force, and an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

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

In 2006, directly 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, Virginia Union University. Williams resides in Chicago with her husband, the Reverend Roderick Williams. She is a volunteer pastor at Chicago Apostolic Center.