Charles Williams | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Charles Williams has been an urban educator for more than 15 years serving as a teacher, a mentor/lead teacher, an assistant principal, and a principal for students in grades K-12.

He also serves as an equity advocate through his work with Great Expectations Mentoring, Chicago Public School's Office of Equity, and The City of Chicago's Equity Office.

Charles is the host of The Counter Narrative Podcast, a show designed to challenge the dominant narrative that often negatively portrays our disenfranchised populations. He is also the co-host of Inside the Principal's Office, a bi-monthly show featuring educational leaders from around the world.

After presenting at numerous events including nationwide conferences, educational workshops, and fundraising events, Charles decided to launch CW Consulting - an organization committed to delivering personalized keynotes, workshops, and consulting services focused on helping institutions to unlock their potential and delivering results.

Current position (3)

Founder

CW Consulting

Host

The Counter Narrative Podcast

Co-Host

Inside the Principal's Office

Degrees (4)

Communication

Purdue

2002 to 2006

Education

Calumet College of St Joseph

2007 to 2009

Educational Administration

Purdue

2010 to 2012

Change Management

Harvard

2019 to 2021

Presentations

Presentations (2)

The Problem with Color Blindness: Tales of a Black Man Raised White

Color blindness is a well-intentioned but inherently flawed approach to equity. During this session, I will share how my mother and grandparents attempted to protect me from the harsh realities of the world by stripping me of one-half of my ethnicity. By subduing my blackness and highlighting my whiteness, they believed that I would be better embraced in the various environments in which I would eventually navigate. While this approach equipped me with the social norms and tools to understand these spaces, nothing they did could change the fact that I looked nothing like those around me. In fact, this very approach robbed me of the essential knowledge that I needed to interact meaningfully with those who did look like me. This session will explore, through laughter and tears (maybe), how I struggled to discover my identity as a black(ish) person and showcase just how damaging adopting a color blind mentality can be.

Equitable Leadership: Moving Beyond the Buzzword

Equity is one of the hottest topics in education today but it doesn’t just happen. Leaders must be intentional about developing their own equity stance, curating approaches to ensure that their school communities embrace these ideologies, and cultivating systems to ensure lasting change. Join me as we use the Equity Framework developed by a team of educators in Chicago Public Schools to address an equity challenge identified in your own space. Attendees will walk away with a personalized purpose that they can share with their school communities and practical resources to begin doing this essential work.