November 09, 2023
Mildred Williams is SIU’s new Black Resource Center coordinator
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Mildred Williams is the new coordinator of the Black Resource Center within the Student Multicultural Resource Center.
However, she is not new to SIU as she is a 2011 alumna with bachelor’s degrees in social work and Africana studies. She is the first person to earn the Africana studies degree after the program was established in fall 2010 and said she is very grateful to her family and community and especially to Father Joseph Brown, professor in the program, for the support they provided.
She said she values the strength of her degree and the experiences she had at SIU as this led her many places where she could make an impact after graduation, including working at Brehm Preparatory School, in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center at Penn State University and with youth in foster care and the Department of Children and Family Services system in Illinois.
She recently decided to return to SIU, where she could share her knowledge and experience from her career and life while cultivating safe, brave and healing spaces for students of the African diaspora in the Black Resource Center.
She will share more about her career and journey during the “Alumni Speaks” event at noon Tuesday, Nov. 14, in the Old Main Room of the Student Center, during Leadership and Service Week: Recognizing National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Everyone is welcome to attend. This will be the third such event, with previous guests including Alderperson Colby Chapman and Associate Dean Kendar Torres. Sarah Alli-Brown, a sophomore journalism major from Chicago who is coordinator of the Black Affairs Council, will be interviewing Williams.
Williams encourages students to drop in to visit her or email her at mildred@siu.edu to make an appointment; she also asks that they check the website for updates about events.