Katherine Williams

Background

Katherine was born in 1941, in Tunapuna, Saint George, Trinidad and Tobago.

Education

Katherine (Kay) Williams attended Bishop Anstey High School. She came to the United States in 1976, attended Harvard University, Cambridge, MA and received her Masters Degree in Interactive Technology in Education (EdM'84), and a Doctorate in Human Development (EdD'87).

Career

In 1960, Katherine (Kay) Williams was one of the first Black women hired by Barclays Bank in Trinidad and Tobago. Subsequently, she became the first Head Teller of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago; and was the first employee hired by the then Workers Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, as Operations Officer. Leaving Banking after almost 16 years, she was Import Officer of Matouk Ltd. and migrated to the United States in 1976.

Achievements

• In 1979-1980, Williams was head of the Caribbean segment of the Folklife Program, Smithsonian Institution, a week-long festival, where the cultural retensions of Caribbean peoples were introduced and showcased to the larger American society.. She also served as an editor/proof reader with the Research Institute on Immigration and Ethnic Studies, Smithsonian Institution (1978-1982).
  
  A member of the staff of the Commissioner's Office, New York State Department of Social Services, created new programs for low income mothers and children on public assistance, including a summer program for 8-year-olds on a university campus; and, a GED program for mothers.

Works

• book

  • Computers: Our Road To The Future

    (Used by the Washington, DC public school system as the pr...)

    1982

  • Where Else But America?

    (Impressions of life in America by a recent immigrant.)

    1977

• photography

  • Solo Show

    (Organization of American States, Washington, DC 7/21/198...)

• poetry

  • Poems appeared in The Laureate Letter; Pegasus (now defunct); The Color of Life, International Library of Poetry; and, Theatre of the Mind, Noble House, London.

• Watercolors

  • Solo Shows:
    
    NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (2001); Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago, Washington, DC (2001); Gutman Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2000,1999, 1998); Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (1999); National Center Gallery, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA (1999); and, Touchstone Gallery, and the Sumner School Museum, Washington, DC (1998). After the terrorist attacks on American soil on 9/11/01, Williams presented an on-line solo show, A New Reality, Harvard University (2001).
    
    Group Shows:
    
    Washington DC area -- International Monetary Fund (IMF) 1998; Organization of American States (OAS) 1998; Embassy of Argentina, 1998; and, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) 1998, 1999.
    
    Contributor to Women of the World: A Global Collection of Art, a multi-year international show exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA; Cultural Center, Athens, Greece; Gerdenberg Cultural Center, Reykjavik, and Akureyri Museum, Iceland; Tallinn Hall, Estonia; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; International Museum of Women, San Francisco, CA; Museum of the South West, TX; Women’s Art Gallery, OH; Tuscon Museum of Art, AZ; University of New England, Portland, ME; University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Volvo, Stockholm, Sweden; Flint Institute, MI; and, White Columns Gallery, New York, NY.
    
    

    (Solo Shows: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt...)

• Other Work

  • Group Show

    (Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture)

Membership

• Harvard Club of Washington, DC , United States

• American Association of Women Artists (AAWA) , USA

• Phi Delta Kappa , United States of America

• American Association of University Women (AAUW) , United States

• Who's Who in America

• Who's Who in American Art

Personality

Travelled extensively, including a trip around the world, alone (1990). Other visits overseas include travel to Russia, China, India, Nepal, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru.

Quotes from others about the person

• "The book ...is perfect for our training needs. I have also talked to Dr. Brach at the University of the District of Columbia, and he is using the book in a class of his. (Letter dated 3/22/1983)
  
  Gordon Lewis, Supervising Dir. of Mathematics, District of Columbia Public Schools

Interests

• Collector: 19C oils, 19C and 20C prints, art books

Connections

Williams' son, Garvin Jay (1963-2007) attended Trinity College (Trinidad), St. Albans School for Boys, Washington, DC and SUNY, Albany. He was the Computer Network Administrator for the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington, DC and at the time of his death, was President of the Town Terrace West Condo Association.

References

• Katherine Williams Headlined Item, Washington Woman, Feb-Mar 1999 Who, What, When/A Multifaced Artist
  1999