OVERVIEW
Damon L. Williams, Jr. is Vice President of University Relations and Chief of Staff to the President at Adler University. As a strategic partner to President Lisa Coleman, he leads executive operations, Institutional Advancement, and Marketing and Communications, and he serves as Co-Secretary of the Board of Trustees. He is also helping shape a student success model for Adler’s graduate students.
Williams brings more than 20 years of leadership across higher education, healthcare, corporate, and nonprofit sectors. Before joining Adler, he served as Vice President for Outreach at the University of Kentucky HealthCare and as Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff at the University of Kentucky. He was the inaugural Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion for Graduate Education at Northwestern University, built the EDGE office at Emory University, and led the Office of Graduate Placement and the Ronald E. McNair Program at his alma mater, Xavier University of Louisiana.
His expertise includes executive operations and strategic planning, institutional advancement and partnership development, community engagement, and building access and pathways for graduate and professional students. Diverse: Issues In Higher Education featured him on its cover as “The Access Architect,” and the Chicago Defender named him one of its Men of Excellence.
Williams holds degrees from Xavier University of Louisiana, Fontbonne University, and Tulane University, and is a doctoral candidate in Leadership and Innovation at New York University. A proud third generation HBCU Alumnus, he considers his return to Chicago a homecoming and is an enthusiastic supporter of the city’s arts, culture, and civic life.
