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Terrie Williams (born May 12, 1954) is an American public relations speaker, author, therapist, and philanthropist.


Early life

Williams' father, Charles, was born as one of five siblings and received his education through the military. Terrie's mother, Marie, had nine siblings and was the only one to complete high school. Terrie's family would often visit the St. Agatha home for children in Nanuet, NY and spent time with the orphan children for the weekend. These visits allowed Terrie to see develop compassion at a very young age; influencing who she is today.


Education

After high school Williams continued to further her education at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts where she received a BA in psychology and sociology. She received the Alumni Achievement Award in 1988. "The Alumni Achievement Award recognizes alumni who have made distinguished contributions to their professions or chosen fields of endeavor. It represents the highest form of university recognition bestowed exclusively on alumni." Upon completion of her bachelor's degree, she went to obtain a Master's of Science in Social Work at Columbia University.


Early career

Upon obtaining her M.S., Williams took a job as a medical social worker at New York Hospital (now called Weill-Cornell Medical Center) counseling terminally ill, and physically challenged patients. At the hospital, she met and befriended jazz musician
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
who encouraged her to open her own business, which Williams eventually did.Williams, Terry (2002
''A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues''
(pp. 14-19) New York: Warner Books


The Terrie Williams Agency

In 1988 she founded The Terrie Williams Agency (TTWA), a public relations firm. Her first clients were
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
and comedian
Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...
. The firm provides employee training and motivational speaking for various corporations, community-based organizations and universities. Over the years, it has represented public figures such as Prince, Chris Rock, Janet Jackson, Louis Gossett Jr., the Reverend Al Sharpton, Sean "Diddy" Combs, MoNique,
Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) ...
, and the late Johnnie L. Cochran. Corporate clients include HBO, Revlon, Time Warner, ''Essence'' magazine and Forest City Ratner Companies. Her work in public relations has been referenced in textbooks, business guides, print editorials, social media, and pop culture. Since its creation in 1988, The Terrie Williams Agency has provided many of its services on a
pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...
basis to underserved communities.


Battle with depression

In 2003 Williams suffered a severe bout of depression. She was forced to put her public relations career on hold as she recovered from the illness. In a June 2005 interview with ''Essence'' magazine, "Depression and the Superwoman," she spoke candidly about the effects of depression. She specifically drew attention to the reluctance of African-Americans to seek treatment due to social stigmas against mental illness and a variety of other culturally-specific issues. Since that time, she has become a mental health activist, lecturing across the country, encouraging members of the public to come forward and discuss their own personal experiences with others in communal settings. She was commended for using her high-profile to break a nationwide taboo that had previously rendered mental illness unacceptable, invisible and therefore largely untreated within African American communities. ''Black Pain'' was heralded as "a wake-up call, a conversation starter for the thousands, if not millions, of black people who fight to make it through one day into the next."


Books

Williams has written four books. Her first, ''The Personal Touch: What You Really Need to Succeed in Today's Fast-paced Business World'' offered "an excellent primer on the basics of building and maintaining business relationships." The second book, ''Stay Strong: Simple Life Lessons for Teens'' formed the basis of Williams' non-profit Stay Strong Foundation. ''A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues'', offers advice on how to parlay core values into sound business practices. In 2008, she wrote ''Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting'', which examines the role of unaddressed mental and emotional illness in spreading physical disease, substance abuse, violent crime and broken families among
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
.


Philanthropy and activism

In 2005, Terrie Williams founded the Stay Strong Foundation (SSF)—now dissolved. SSF worked to support, educate and inspire America's youth through a series of programs and events that are designed to raise awareness of teen issues, promote the personal well-being of young people and enhance their educational and professional development. The foundation encouraged corporate and individual responsibility, developed educational resources for youth and youth organizations, provided and coordinated internships, set up mentoring opportunities, and facilitated visits by prominent individuals and business professionals to schools, libraries, youth organizations and group homes. In March 2008, the Stay Strong Foundation launched the "Healing Starts With Us" campaign. In 2010 SSF collaborated with the Ad Council and the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA; pronounced ) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is charged with improving the quality and availability of treatment and rehabilitative services ...
(SAMHSA) to introduce a campaign entitled "Share Ourselves: Healing Starts With Us." To date, the campaign has garnered $2.5 million in donated national advertising space and 11 million media impressions to significantly heighten awareness of the importance of mental and emotional health. In October 2012, Williams was a featured speaker on mental health for
World Mental Health Day World Mental Health Day (10 October) is an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global m ...
.


Awards and honors

*In 1991 Williams was the first (and remains the only) woman of color to receive the New York Women of Communications Matrix Award in the category of Public Relations *Public Relations Society of America /New York Chapter's 1995 Phillip Dorf Mentoring Award *In 1996, Williams was the first person of color to be awarded the Vernon C. Schranz Distinguished Lectureship at Ball State University *2006 Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural & Minority Medicine's Eagle Fly Free Award *In 2009 NAMI/FAMILYA of Rockland County recognized Williams' extraordinary commitment to de-stigmatizing mental illness by giving her their Florence Gould Gross Award *2009 Dr. David Satcher Mental Health Trailblazer Award—Jackson State University (Southern Institute for Mental Health Advocacy, Research and Training) *2009 The Citizens Committee for New York City Marietta Tree Award for Public Service *''Ebonys 2010 "Power 150" for Activism *In 2009, Williams was listed among ''
Woman's Day ''Woman's Day'' is an American women's monthly magazine that covers such topics as homemaking, food, nutrition, physical fitness, physical attractiveness, and fashion. The print edition is one of the Seven Sisters magazines. The magazine was fir ...
'' magazine's 50 "Women Who Are Changing The World" *The National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI-NYC Metro) 2010 award Honoring Pioneering Women in Mental Health *2011 Williams was named "PR Executive of the Year" at the MAAX Summit *2011 Heart & Soul Award honoree "For All You Do" *2011 Full Circle Health Award *2011 recipient of New Federal Theatre's 40th Anniversary Woodie King, Jr. Award *2011 Emmett Till Legacy Foundation's "Woman of Courage" Award *2011 The Khary Orr Leadership Award—African American Heritage Parade Committee *2012 SCLC Women Drum Major for Justice Award *2012 National Association of Social Workers-NYC Social Work Image Award *Williams was one of TheGrio.com's 100 in 2013 *Terrie Williams was the 2013 Commencement Keynote Speaker for Metropolitan College of New YorkMetropolitan College of New York (July 3, 2013)


References


External links

* Terrie Williams Websit


The Terrie Williams Agency
1990-11-01,
In Black America Produced at KUT, ''In Black America'' is a long-running, nationally syndicated program dedicated to all facets of the African American experience. John L Hanson Jr. profiles a diverse selection of current and historically significant figures who ...
, KUT Radio,
American Archive of Public Broadcasting The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digitall ...
(
WGBH WGBH may refer to: * WGBH Educational Foundation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States ** WGBH (FM), a public radio station at Boston, Massachusetts on 89.7 MHz owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation ** WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), ...
and the Library of Congress) {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Terrie 1954 births Living people Writers from Mount Vernon, New York Brandeis University alumni Columbia University School of Social Work alumni American publicists 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers