Ronnie Williams will be the spring 2023 Arkansas Tech University Diversity Speaks Lecture Series guest of honor on Thursday, April 13.
Williams will speak at 2:30 p.m. in Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center room 300, 305 West Q Street in Russellville. His appearance is made possible by the ATU Black Faculty and Staff Organization and the ATU Office of Academic Affairs. A reception will be sponsored by Pendergraft Library and Technology Center.
Admission will be free and open to the public.
A resident of Menifee, Williams is the author of “Markham Street.” It is about the death of his brother, 20-year old U.S. Army paratrooper Marvin Leonard Williams, while in police custody in 1960 and the Williams family’s search for justice.
Ronnie Williams retired from the University of Central Arkansas in 2021 following more than four decades of service to the institution. He joined UCA as assistant dean of students in 1980 and was subsequently promoted to director of minority affairs (1990), assistant to the president (1992) and vice president for student services (1996). He added the duties of chief diversity officer in 2013.
His community involvement has included service as chairman of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce and vice chairman of the Arkansas Educational Television Commission. He has also volunteered with the Arkansas Community Foundation Board, the Faulkner County Shelter for Abused and Battered Women and the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct.
Williams holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hendrix College and a Master of Science in Education degree from Arkansas State University.
The ATU Diversity Speaks Lecture Series was established in 2019. Previous speakers have included Dr. Logan C. Hampton (2019), president of Lane College in Jackson, Tenn., and Adena Strickland White (2022), founder and chief storyteller for Blackbelt Media LLC. The event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
