Twenty years ago, Dr. Alveda Williams did not get the opportunity to return to campus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and participate in the Department of Chemistry's Convocation ceremony as a PhD graduate. However, just before she delivered the keynote address at the Convocation ceremony on May 14, 2023, at Krannert Center, the department surprised her with the opportunity to walk across the stage to receive her "diploma" and pause for a symbolic hooding.
"This is a milestone moment," she told the Class of 2023 graduates. "It’s a milestone for you – as it marks the culmination of you completing your Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. degree in Chemistry. But it is also not lost on me that it was exactly 20 years ago this weekend that I missed the opportunity to return to campus for my own convocation. So, as I stand here today donning this regalia for the first time, I share in the immense sense of pride, achievement, and excitement that you all have..."
Williams told the graduates that the opportunities ahead of them with a degree in chemistry are endless, and the possibilities are great.
"I know this because since leaving Illinois, I have enjoyed a career in industry that has taken me from the laboratory bench to the C-suite of a Fortune 500 company," Williams said.
As the Chief Inclusion Officer at Dow, Williams is responsible for institutionalizing inclusion, diversity, and equity as key drivers for the company’s long-term growth and business success. She told the graduates that she uses what she learned at Illinois in her work — critical thinking skills, data-based decision making, and the ability to identify and follow a critical path even in the business of people.
"I learned how to take risks and came to appreciate that failure didn’t have to be considered fatal," she said. "But I also learned over those five years what it was like to truly feel welcomed and a sense of belonging, despite being one of only a few in the department at the time that looked like me. Before the word 'allyship' was ever a part of my regular vocabulary, I experienced it on this campus."
She reminded the graduates that chemistry is about enhancing lives.
"Whether you use your chemistry degree to address the challenges of our time, to educate the next generation of scientists, to accelerate positive impact in our communities, or to drive towards a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable world, I know that the opportunities for you are endless, and the possibilities are great," Williams said.
Dr. Alveda Williams biography
Alveda Williams is the Chief Inclusion Officer at Dow. She is responsible for institutionalizing inclusion, diversity, and equity as key drivers for the Company’s long-term growth and business success.
Prior to being named Chief Inclusion Officer, Williams served as Corporate Director of Inclusion and Senior HR Director for Talent Acquisition where she was responsible for driving and implementing Dow’s global ID&E strategy, ensuring fair and equitable end-to-end talent acquisition processes, and embedding inclusion into the overall employee experience for breakthrough results. This included maximizing employee resource group engagement, diversifying Dow’s talent pipeline and supplier network, and driving efforts that enable a culture of inclusion for our employees, customers and communities.
Under Alveda’s leadership, Dow delivered meaningful progress on key inclusion and diversity performance indicators, ascended to the No. 15 spot on the DiversityInc Top 50 list, and was named for the first time to the Great Place to Work and Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For List.
Williams joined Dow in 2002 and has held a variety of leadership roles across Research and Development and Human Resources over her 20-year career. She is the creator of Dow’s Building Engineering & Science Talent at Dow (BEST) Symposium which introduces underrepresented minority Ph.D. talent to careers in industrial research. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Corporate Council, and the Chief Diversity Officer Board for the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4CP).
Williams earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Norfolk State University and a Ph.D. in materials chemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds three patents and is the author of a number of internal and external publications, including a recent feature in Nature Chemistry magazine. She is the recipient of the NSBE Golden Torch Award for Corporate Diversity Leadership (2009), the prestigious Dow Transformation in Action Award (2012), the Council for Chemical Research Diversity Award (2013), Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching List (2014), and i4CP’s Board Member of the Year Award (2021).