AICU Rhode Island is delighted to welcome Crystal Williams as the new President of Rhode Island School of Design.

Williams most recently served as Boston University’s inaugural vice president and associate provost for community and inclusion since 2020. In this role, she provided vision and strategic direction for initiatives that support the development of strong communities and the promotion of diversity, inclusion, and equity on campus.

Prior to her work at Boston University, Williams held similar roles at Bates College (2013-17) and Reed College (as a faculty leader from 2000-11 and as Dean from 2011-13). It was at Reed where she began her academic career as a professor of English Professor, working with colleagues to create an infrastructure to support greater diversity, inclusion, and equity.

As a deeply collaborative leader, she has helped drive meaningful change in higher education through numerous roles, including as a member of the Oversight Committee for the Sloan Foundation-funded STEM Faculty Leadership program; the Executive Committee for the Creating Connections Consortium (C3), an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded consortium of liberal arts colleges and research universities (including Bates, Connecticut College, Middlebury, Williams, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan); as co-chair of the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers; as a member of the steering committee for the Consortium for Faculty Diversity; and as a collaborator with senior members of the Mellon Northwest 5 Faculty Consortium.

Williams is also an award winning poet and essayist, with four published collections of poems. She is the recipient of several artistic fellowships, grants, and honors, including a fellowship the MacDowell Arts Colony, an appointment as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of University Writing at DePauw University, a Master Poet residency at Indiana University, the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize, a Literary Arts fellowship, an Oregon Arts Commission individual artist grant and a Barbara Deming/Money for Women artist grant, among others.

The AICU Rhode Island board looks forward to President Williams’ collaboration and contribution to the Association’s advocacy and consortia efforts.