Crystal Williams Named 18th President of Rhode Island School of Design

Key Facts

• Currently Boston University’s vice president and associate provost for community & inclusion, Williams was selected after an international search for a leader with the capability and passion to educate artists, designers and scholars for a rapidly changing future, and one with the global vision to guide RISD’s role in helping to create a more just, fair and sustainable society.
• She has an aesthetic sensibility and a keen power of observation and she listens, deeply” > > Tweet this “When we began the search for RISD’s 18th president, we sought candidates with not just the experience, education and wisdom that the job requires, but also receptivity, an aesthetic sensibility, the skill to communicate in a community that trades in images and materials, and something even more intangible: a deep, abiding empathy that can bind us all together,” notes RISD Board of Trustees Chair Michael Spalter.
• Since her arrival at BU in 2017 as the institution's associate provost for diversity & inclusion, Williams has led a number of critical initiatives including the University Scholars Program and Target of Opportunity Hiring Program, which both seek to impact faculty hiring culture; the Inclusive Pedagogy Initiative; the LGBTQIA+ Task Force; and the 2020 BU Day of Collective Engagement, which brought the university’s community of faculty, staff and students together to reflect on the impact of race and racism on our society and communities.
• A deeply collaborative leader, she has helped to drive meaningful change in higher education through national roles and collaborations, including as a member of the Oversight Committee for the Sloan Foundation-funded STEM Faculty Leadership program; the Executive Committee for the Creating Connections Consortium (C3), an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded consortium of liberal arts colleges and research universities (including Bates, Connecticut College, Middlebury, Williams, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan); as co-chair of the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers; as a member of the steering committee for the Consortium for Faculty Diversity; and as a collaborator with senior members of the Mellon Northwest 5 Faculty Consortium.

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