Community Trailblazer Spotlight: Dr. Jennifer Williams

Last year, Hamilton County saw the fewest number of Black infant deaths on record. This came as a community of partners focused squarely on improving a longstanding racial disparity in birth outcomes. Many of these efforts were led by Black women. Over the next several months, we will be highlighting the stories of nine of these women. Read on to learn about Dr. Jennifer Williams from Cincinnati Public Schools.

Dr. Jennifer Williams believes that relationships are vital to making communities work. As the Assistant Principal at R.A.Taft High School, her role includes building relationships with students, teachers, leaders and families as well as the community outside the school’s doors. Jennifer says, “As an educational leader in a system that calls for all to succeed, but historically was not built to do that, I must be a change agent for diversity, inclusion and equity. It is important to understand that this goal is good for all.” She goes on to point out that Cincinnati Public Schools is at a critical point of pivotal change. With many events canceled this year, the staff at Taft High School has found new avenues to bring equity in technology like never before: providing all students with devices and free wifi opportunities. 

Jennifer is proud to be a part of the CPS team as they lift student voices and look for justice in the details of all they do. And, she’s optimistic about the days ahead, stating with authority, “Cincinnati's children will be leaders in problem-solving as they are in systems that find new ways of thinking and delivering services when we meet barriers, roadblocks and sometimes huge walls.”

While CPS schools have shifted the way they educate, meet and counsel as well as provide medical care, dental care, feed and celebrate students, they have not closed during the pandemic. Together they have creatively worked to meet the needs of students. 

Like many educators, Jennifer knows that collaboration is the key to meeting the community’s needs, citing political divides as a barrier to caring for one another. She says, “Our community's needs could be met faster if humanitarian efforts were not met with political partisanship. I am not sure how our community and country has moved how we care for one another into the political ideology, but I believe humanity is not a political party mandate, but a mandate to us all.”

Still, Jennifer is hopeful about what comes next. She is excited to work in Cincinnati Public Schools, a district that is committed to being the best at getting better, being at the forefront of anti-racism education, and testing small, yet scaling fast with what works for students and communities. 

Jennifer's advice for new moms: Pregnant Moms should know that Hamilton County is rich with support and services, ask for help, and get the support your baby deserves.