Patricia Hill Williams

Retired Vice President for External Affairs,
Farmingdale State University

BY MAUREEN TRAXLER

Beyond Farmingdale State

Williams' reach stretched far beyond the college campus. Early in her tenure she was awarded a Kellogg/Partners Fellowship in International Leadership, through which she worked with people in Latin America and the Caribbean, helping them gain the knowledge and confidence to improve their lives and their communities. In return, the fellowship enabled her to bring back to the college a wealth of knowledge and professional skills.

"The Kellogg's fellowship was a great concept, bringing together United States citizens and Latin and South Americans," says Williams. "Its goal was to build civil societies and promote understanding among peoples in the Western Hemisphere."

Through the fellowship, Williams helped bring grant funding from Partners of the Americas to the people in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Founded in 1964, Partners is a nonprofit organization linking volunteers from 46 states with people of Latin American and Caribbean countries in 64 partnerships. It sponsors small-scale community-based projects that promote economic and human development.

"The people know what they need," says Williams, "and they want to plan the projects with volunteers, so they can learn how to be self-sustaining." Many of the projects she helped design were carried out by women. After her fellowship was completed, Williams continued to volunteer with Partners for more than 20 years, traveling to Brazil, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. Eventually, "things came full circle," adds Williams, and she took on the role of setting policy, fund development, institutional advancement, and establishing university links especially for women in development and technology. She currently serves as treasurer of the international board of directors.

A Southern Start

Born in Richmond and raised by her great-aunt and uncle in Danville, Virginia, Williams attended a segregated elementary school. Her great-aunt was a teacher and she fondly remembers being toted to her aunt's classroom long before she would be a pupil herself. Williams says she looks back on those early school days "with pride" and "values those years as my foundation."

In 1959, Williams came to New York to join her parents who had relocated to the Bronx to find work, and she attended the all-girl Elizabeth Barrett Browning Junior High School where her Southern accent was a topic of conversation. She participated in school clubs and loved to travel. She says, "I always had an urge to be involved."

Williams aspired to become a doctor, but monetary constraints dashed those hopes. Her mom encouraged her to become an X-ray technician, a profession she practiced for 10 years.

"It was a good beginning," says Williams, "and it later paid my way through college." It wasn't until she was married and the mother of a daughter, Tory, that she returned to college, attending a pilot program at SUNY Old Westbury which was comprised of a third adult learners, a third African Americans and a third traditional students. During her years at Farmingdale State, she also received a scholarship to the Management Development Program at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, and earned two master's degrees and a doctorate in education.

Although Williams recognizes the importance of formal education, she says, "I think the opportunities I had to study, work and interact with other people and other cultures were more valuable and enhanced my education."

Presidential Appointments

Williams' concentration on women's issues led to four Presidential appointments. Ronald Reagan appointed her to his National Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs. In this capacity, she used her skills in raising funds and developing partnerships to assure that federal grants were properly used in serving women's needs. President George Bush, Sr., named her to the Presidential Advisory Council on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

President Bill Clinton appointed Williams to the Inter-American Foundation, a bi-partisan agency that provides funding to grassroots organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, bringing U.S. government grants directly to the people. She represented the Inter-American Foundation at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.

"Based on all the experiences I've had in different cultures and my experience in Beijing," says Williams, "I've learned that women all over the world have the same concerns: better education for their children, health care for their families, and economic development for women. Women in other countries work so well together to achieve these goals." And Williams recalls several examples: women in West African villages who came together to form a credit union, and another group of 20 women who formed a collective to transform a plant product into cereal and starch in their own factory. At night, they used the factory for lessons in literacy so they could educate their children and sustain their families. "Their creativity impressed me," Williams adds.

Extending her work with the Inter-American Foundation, George W. Bush appointed Williams Vice Chairman, and she continued to serve the organization until October, 2004.

"I found my international involvement very rewarding," says Williams. "It didn't make me rich in finances, but rich in experiences and friendships." Williams used her vacation leave from Farmingdale State to schedule her trips, appointments and volunteer opportunities. "People have to have a desire to be involved with other cultures and a willingness to do so," says Williams. And she encourages more women to "reach back and bring another woman along with you. Many women can use mentoring."

United Nations Role

Williams's international role has led to her recent reelection to a two-year term on the United Nations Executive Committee of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), an association of the Department of Public Information (DPI). The Executive Committee addresses an annual theme and sponsors a conference on timely events, holds communications forums on fund raising and offers networking opportunities. Williams chairs the committee on developing policy and procedures.

"I'm big on process and procedures," says Williams. "It takes 'personalities' out of the picture and allows the meat of the issue to move forward." She points out that her UN role calls for "thinking out of the box." For instance, when discussing discrimination, one must "think globally and not in the context of our United States experience."

Williams says that throughout her global experiences she did not feel the challenges of discrimination because she is African American and a woman. But to some extent being a woman in the male-dominated higher education profession did pose challenges, especially because men make different choices than women in social and networking activities. But, she remarks, "I had the confidence that I was qualified to perform my duties."

Williams's United Nations affiliation is through the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, of which she is a founding member and past president of the Long Island chapter. She serves on the national board and was chair of its first public policy committee.

Community servant and volunteer, Williams was a trustee of the Babylon Citizens Council on the Arts, the Babylon Historical Society, the Suffolk County Business Advisory Council and the Suffolk County Reapportionment Commission. She is a veteran United Way volunteer, member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Eastern Shore Chapter of the LINKS, former president of the Suffolk Jack and Jill of America chapter, encouraging the bonding of mothers and their young children. Williams is active on the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission, addressing immigration issues and the "changing face" on Long Island.

"We're becoming a diverse community," remarks Williams, "and we need to embrace all cultures and invite newcomers into our educational system, and civic and community organizations."

Williams received the New York State Senate Woman of Distinction Award and the SUNY Distinguished Service Award, was a charter inductee in the SUNY/CUAD (Council for University Affairs and Development) Hall of Fame, and is listed in Who's Who Among Black Americans and Who's Who Among American Women.

Williams looks forward to continuing her work with the United Nations and making Long Island connections in Latin America and the Caribbean through Partners. She plans to form PHW Consultants with her daughter, a graphic artist and web designer, and spend more time with granddaughter Aliyah, and her mom. The four generations have lived for the past four years in the Belmont section of Babylon.