Calfee Center Board Announces First Full-Time Executive Director
The Calfee Community and Cultural Center’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce that, after conducting a search process, it has selected its current Consultant and Acting Co-Executive Director Jill Williams to serve as the organization’s first full time Executive Director. “The CCCC Board of Directors came to the realization that after almost five years with Jill’s leadership, problem solving, decision making, and vision that we had the best possible candidate,” said Calfee Board President Dr. Mickey Hickman. “ No one has intimate knowledge on our project like Jill. We are so fortunate that she has accepted the position. We are in excellent and capable hands!”
Although the Calfee Board selected Jill, in part, because of her knowledge of the Calfee Training School Adaptive Reuse Project, they also recognized that her broader skills and experiences are uniquely tailored to the important work of the organization. Throughout her education and career, she has been involved with facilitating complex community based projects that address community needs and reckon with complicated history.
As a student at Davidson College, Jill conducted oral history research around the desegregation of the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System for the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, NC. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in religion, Jill earned a masters degree in conflict resolution and went on to become the executive director of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This body was modeled after government-led initiatives in South Africa and Central and South America and tasked with investigating the 1979 Greensboro Massacre when Klansmen and Nazis attacked a labor and economic justice demonstration, killing five people and wounding ten others. From Greensboro, Jill moved to New York where she worked as a program officer at the Andrus Family Fund supporting community reconciliation and child welfare initiatives around the United States and later as the Coordinator for Leadership Initiatives at the Center for Social Inclusion, supporting grassroots public policy initiatives around the country.
Since moving back to Pulaski, Jill worked as the director of the Accountability in Student Learning Program at New River Community College for several years before leaving to start her own consulting practice, Wide Angle Strategies. Through her consulting firm, Jill not only supported the startup of the Calfee Community and Cultural Center, but she also consulted with organizations like the North Carolina Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission process and the Maine Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations.
“While it was a difficult decision to step away from the projects I support outside of Pulaski County, I am thrilled to be able to focus my professional time squarely on how the Calfee Community and Cultural Center can best support the children, families, and broader community of Pulaski County and I am humbled and honored that the Board has entrusted me with this important role,” Jill said of her new role with the organization.
The Board invites the public to celebrate this and the grand opening of the first phase of the Calfee Center on this Saturday, September 28 from 4-6pm at the historic Calfee Training School, 1 Corbin-Harmon Drive, Pulaski. The natural playspace will be open for the first time, the historic marker will be unveiled, and the learning center classrooms will be open for tours. Refreshments will be served and fun will be had.
About Calfee Community & Cultural Center
From 1894 to 1966, the Calfee Training School educated African American children in Pulaski, VA. Faced with severe underfunding from Jim Crow segregation, the Calfee Training School became a community, helping children and their families reach their full potential. Calfee Community & Cultural Center is revitalizing the positive aspects of this legacy by supporting all of Pulaski County’s children, families, and organizations, building a stronger future for the region. CCCC is dedicated to addressing community needs for high-quality childcare and preserving local African American history while building community and leaders across racial, class, and generational lines.