2023 Commencement Speakers

Senator Brian Williams

The first Black male to serve in the Missouri Senate in two decades, Senator Brian Williams has been representing the 14th Senatorial District in St. Louis County since 2018 and currently serves as the assistant minority floor leader. Williams’s background in government and public health policy led him to work as a congressional staffer and oversee Missouri’s rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace. He also played a key role in securing the new headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in north St. Louis.

During his legislative career, Williams has passed comprehensive police reforms into law, which established the strongest use of force database in the country, prohibited law enforcement from using a respiratory chokehold without deadly force authorization, and shortened the delay to request an expungement for those who have paid their debt to society. In 2022, Williams secured $98 million for North St. Louis County projects, including funding for the construction of the “Campus of the Future” at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, a public safety training facility, and renovations to the St. Louis Metro Employment and Training Center.