Wendi Williams, PhD is presented with this APA Presidential Citation for her outstanding efforts in applying her work as a psychologist, advocate, and educator at the intersection of education and psychology to her scholarship and leadership during the past two decades. Through critical lenses of liberation psychology and Womanist, Black, and intersectional feminist frameworks, she cultivates equitable and socially just contexts for individuals, groups and organizations while attending to structural and cultural change to develop and implement educational, wellness, and leadership programming.
Throughout her career, Williams leverages her background and platform to lead organizations to support the optimal development of vulnerable communities, especially societal challenges that can be enriched by diverse women’s unique perspectives and approaches to leadership. Her leadership experiences include serving as co-chair of the Board for Girls Leadership, an organization that teaches girls to exercise the power of their voice through programs grounded in social-emotional learning; and serving in multiple psychological service and governance roles, including as president and a current APA Council Representative for the Society for the Psychology of Women (APA Division 35).
In terms of her scholarship, her work delves into the contours of Black women’s and girls’ inner lives, illuminating the deep knowledge of their interiority as source content for the development of culturally-responsive educational and psychological interventions. Her recently published work, including WE Matter!: Intersectional Anti-Racist Feminist Interventions with Black Girls and Womenopens in new window, and forthcoming books, Black Women at Work: On Refusal and Recovery, and The Majestic Place: The Freedom Possible in Black Women’s Leadership, demonstrates the heart of her work in this area. She also created the “She Been Ready! The Podcast,”opens in new window where she hosts conversations centered on elevating Black women’s liberatory leadership praxis through their stories of leadership and life.
For her contributions and dedication to the field of psychology and society-at-large, I am honored to award Dr. Wendi Williams an APA presidential citation.