Working to Be a Part of the Solution

Photo: Auburn Randolph, Auburn Randolph Photography

Jacinta Williams PB’07 has spent her career helping to make sure everyone

By Sara Baxter

When Jacinta Williams PB’07 was in college, her plan was to become a lawyer. But, as they sometimes do, plans changed. She fell in love with teaching.

Williams graduated in 2003 from Emory University with a degree in sociology. While she intended to head straight to law school, she instead decided to take a year off. She looked for something productive to do with her time and a way to give back to the community. She found Teach For America, which combined her interest in working with children — she had volunteered in an elementary school while at Emory — and serving the community. She was accepted and placed in a public elementary school in downtown Atlanta. Since Teach For America required a two-year commitment, she figured law school could wait for two years.

But when she walked into the classroom, she knew she had found her calling.

“The minute I saw those 12 faces looking at me, I knew it was where I belonged,” she says. “It was effortless and enjoyable. I fell in love with teaching and the community.”

This is where her career path took a turn. The two years of teaching turned into seven. A law degree was replaced with the completion of Agnes Scott College’s post-baccalaureate early childhood preparation program and a master’s degree in early childhood education from Oglethorpe University. And observations and experiences in the classroom fostered an interest in racial equity and inclusion.

After seven years of teaching, Williams then spent two more as an instructional coach. Along the way, she was becoming aware of certain issues that were a deterrent for BIPOC students in a learning environment.

“In the classroom, I started noticing that systemic change was needed,” Williams says. “I saw the disparity in educational equity in terms of what resources were available to students based on where they lived. It manifested itself in an opportunity gap for students. You often see that play out all the way to college.”

When her elementary school closed, a victim of redistricting, she returned to Teach For America, working in teacher development and training. It was there that she began addressing diversity, equity and inclusion issues in Teach For America schools.

An expert in her field, Jacinta Williams PB’07 works with organizations, including schools, to help them understand diversity, equity and inclusion issues. Above, Williams teaches an anti-bias lesson focused on celebrating our identities and those of others.

Photo courtesy of Jacinta Williams PB’07

Williams defines equity as providing people with the tools they need to be successful and removing barriers to success that are systemic. She defines inclusion as ensuring that all people have a voice and have a place at the table to use their voices toward solution building.

“Leaders are trying to make the best decisions for the community, but they are not listening to the people who need the problem solved,” Williams says. “In order to solve the problem, you have to center the voice of the people who are experiencing the issue or the failure. Their voices really matter.”

After four years, she left Teach For America and became the head of equity and inclusion at the Atlanta International School, where she was tasked with developing a strategy for systemic change in equity and inclusion. She spent her days working with teachers on professional development and lesson plans and assisting the school to develop anti-bias hiring practices that helped them hire and retain a culturally diverse workforce. She also led discussions with the board, parents and students.

“We worked on the student experience to make sure it was culturally affirming,” she says.

“We wanted to create a space for students to explore their identity, discuss critical issues and process their experiences.”

Aside from her full-time job, Williams made time to consult on the side, helping organizations with diversity, equity and inclusion issues. She shared her expertise as a panelist in the Anti-Racist Work Begins at Home: A Community Courageous Conversation, which was organized by Agnes Scott’s Gay Johnson McDougall Center for Global Diversity and Inclusion last summer.

“I believe people coming together across lines of difference for open, authentic learning and/or dialogue is critical in achieving an equitable and just world,” she says. “Seeing so many people show up to that space to learn, grow and ask questions was a powerful experience for me in the midst of the pain I was holding and experiencing as a Black woman during that time. It was also an opportunity for the Agnes Scott community and friends to come together to move in the direction of equity and justice, as the first step is awareness and acknowledgment on a personal, institutional and societal levels.”

In October, Williams left the Atlanta International School to focus full time on her consulting business. She launched CultureEd Collective, where she helps empower schools and nonprofits to build a sustainable, equitable and inclusive culture. In that capacity, she conducts organizational assessments to determine what is working and what is not and examines the organization’s systems from all angles.

Although she admits this work can cause “frustration and downright despair,” she also finds it extremely rewarding. And that’s what keeps her going.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion work done well has the potential to solve our most persistent social challenges by addressing both the historical and current contexts that contribute to inequity and exclusion, dismantling systems designed to be inequitable, and redesigning and rebuilding to create a better reality for everyone,” Williams says. “Seeing the change, even if in small pockets, gives me hope for the future. I can’t solve it on my own, but I can be part of the solution.”