Jane Ann Williams named director of education and training for multicultural affairs
Jane Ann Williams, former director of professional programs at Mercer University, has been named director of education and training for multicultural affairs at Virginia Tech. In this capacity, Williams will provide ongoing leadership and management of the diversity-related educational and training programs for the university community.
Williams will work closely with the Office for Equal Opportunity and other administrative offices and assist with other training initiatives available through those offices. Her responsibilities will include development, assessment, tracking, and marketing of an overall education and training program focusing on multicultural and diversity awareness, skills, and competencies; and creating and presenting seminars and workshops for faculty and staff.
Williams has more than 20 years’ experience in college-level program development, leadership, and instruction. At Mercer University, Williams was responsible for the development and management of professional and international programs. The projects on which she worked included developing technical, cultural, and international programs for several schools at the university and developing the University Advanced Technology Center.
Before working at Mercer, Williams developed and managed technical, communications, and computer training at Frederick Community College, Frederick, Md. She was department head of Communications and Foreign Languages at Anne Arundel Community College where she established the Center for Multicultural Studies and developed and led numerous business- and language- immersion programs abroad. She also worked at the University of Alaska in Anchorage.
Ben Dixon, vice president for multicultural affairs and search committee chair said, "Our ability to attract a professional of this caliber is one indication of Virginia Tech's emergence as one of the leading universities in diversity management. Jane Ann's work in education and training will contribute significantly to our becoming a truly multicultural and inclusive institution.”
Besides work in education, Williams has experience in production and publishing, including writing for a regional newspaper in Maryland, televising debates and town meetings at Anne Arundel, publishing and editing a monthly magazine in Baltimore, and producing video tapes. She also created The Insider’s Guide to Annapolis and edited its premier edition. She produced and hosted a weekly current-events program and produced the statewide news for the NBC affiliate in Anchorage. Williams bilingual, speaking fluent Spanish and reading French.
Williams earned a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree from the University of Baltimore. Her father, Ken Williams, attended Virginia Tech, and her older son, Nicholas Newins, will transfer to Virginia Tech this year, making theirs a three-generation Hokie family.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
