bio

Samantha Williams is the executive director of Birmingham Promise, an organization that seeks to guarantee opportunities for students by funding college tuition and providing internships and apprenticeships. She spent the previous decade at Teach For All, a global network focused on expanding educational opportunity around the world. Most recently, she led Teach For All’s Global Girls’ Education Initiative. Previously, she served in New York as the organization’s chief of staff and in Johannesburg as the head of its operations in Africa. 

Before joining Teach For All, Samantha worked for Harvard University, where she managed its partnership with the University of Johannesburg Education Leadership Institute to support the professional development of South African educators. She previously worked in South Africa as a residence director and teacher at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, and in Atlanta with Communities In Schools of Georgia to support graduation coaches and reduce dropout rates.

A Daphne, Alabama native, Samantha is a graduate of Georgetown University and has a master’s degree in development studies from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University. She writes about politics, race, identity, gender, and belonging through a weekly newsletter, Thirty-Six, and was the host of Teach For All’s podcast Inside Global Girls’ Education. In her free time, she enjoys singing, reading, traveling, spending time with family, collecting wine, and of course, writing.