Williams dedicated her speech, ""Shaping the Future: Leading a Life that Matters," to 12 students she accompanied to South Africa in 1986 as part of a peace studies program at Bryn Mawr College, where Williams was special assistant to the president.
After touring South Africa and being arrested--because there was one black student among the whites the group was considered a mixed-race gathering and therefore illegal under Apartheid--the students lobbied the Byrn Mawr board to divest its investments in the country. The effort culminated in a protest where hundreds of students laid down around the building where the board was meeting and board members left out a window.
"Those kids transformed my life," Williams said.
Since then Williams has taken 24 humanitarian trips to South Africa. She has also served on the boards of HOPE Hispanic Institute, the Act Six Leadership & Scholarship Initiative and the Women's Foundation of California.
Williams has bachelor's and master's degrees from Southern Illinois University and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University. She completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard University and was named a Kellog Leadership Fellow and a Ford Foundation Fellow. She also worked with the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities' Commission on Advancing Intercultural Competencies.