Biography

Junious Williams is the principal and owner of Junious Williams Consulting, Inc. (JWC) a consulting firm specializing in research, policy and program development on issues of equity and social justice.  He also serves as a Senior Adviser to The Collective Impact forum.

Prior to forming JWC, Mr. Williams served as President and CEO of Urban Strategies Council, a social impact organization using research, policy, collaboration, innovation and advocacy to achieve social change. He joined the Council in 1992 and served as CEO from 1998 through 2016.  He holds a Juris Doctorate in Law and a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Michigan. 

In addition to private law practice in Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan, his career includes founding the Saginaw Student Rights Center and co-founding the Ann Arbor Student Advocacy Center.  He worked on school desegregation, education equity and student discipline as Associate Director of the Programs for Educational Opportunity at the University of Michigan’s School of Education. He also served as Executive Director of Student Attendance and Discipline for the Detroit Public Schools and as an Associate professor of Ethnic Studies at CSU, Fresno.

He has worked on community building and development, workforce and economic development efforts in the Bay Area including negotiating landmark community benefits agreements on major development projects in Oakland and San Francisco. 

He is co-founder and Board Chair of the Oakland Community Land Trust. Other current service includes service as Board Chair for the Center for Law and Education and board member for the National Trust for the Development of African American Men. Previously he served on the Union Bank Community Advisory Board, the National Community Building Network Board of Directors, and the Steering Committees for the National Neighborhood Indicators Project, Oakland Reads 2020 and the Oakland and the Bay Emerald Cities Collaboratives, a national effort aimed at large-scale urban building energy retrofit with high road employment opportunities.