Traci Williams, Ed.D., has 17 years in varying roles within higher education and five years in K–12 public education. Her formal training is in secondary natural sciences education, educational leadership, curriculum and teaching. She has held various higher education administrative roles with responsibility for program evaluation, assessment of student learning outcomes, regional/program accreditation, educational research for general improvement planning and all aspects of institutional reporting and strategic planning. These administrative roles have been at both a small private four-year and a large public two-year institution. She currently serves as the executive director for institutional effectiveness, research & planning (IERP) for Chattanooga State Community College located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she administratively supports faculty-led assessment teams for each of the institutional student learning outcomes, co-chairs the institutional Data Team and is an active member of both the Equity and Leadership Teams. Within her leadership role, Dr. Williams consistently maintains a staunch advocacy for data-informed decisions and evidence-based policies through an equity-focused perspective. She recently became a fellow with the Strategic Data Project for Postsecondary Career and Technical Education (SDP-CTE) and successfully completed the Applied Data Analytics program with the Coleridge Institute. She was the first to attend college in her family and is a first-generation and always-learning antiracist.
Education
Ed.D. (Curriculum & Teaching) | Northcentral University
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership) | Trevecca Nazarene University
B.S.Ed. (Secondary Biology/Chemistry) | University of Tennessee at Martin
Past Experience
Executive Director, Institutional Effectiveness, Research & Planning | Chattanooga State Community College
Director, Assessment & Planning | Chattanooga State Community College
Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness | Tennessee Wesleyan University
Assistant Vice President for Institutional Research & Retention/Chief Information Officer | Tennessee Wesleyan University
Registrar/Associate Director of Admissions |Tennessee Wesleyan University
How has education changed your life/your family?
I fell in love with education and learning on day one of kindergarten; the structure, systems, processes, and routine provided stability and predictability lacked at home while also opening possibilities for a different future from my parents and grandparents. As first-generation college attendees and later graduates, both my spouse and I have experienced the expansion of personal perspective, the awareness of cultural differences, as well as mobility, both socially and economically. With these benefits and others not mentioned in my personal educational experiences, I am now able to provide a more stable family structure for my children and the financial means to provide similar opportunities to others.