Biographical Sketch of President H. James Williams

H. James Williams, Ph.D., C.P.A., C.M.A., J.D., LL.M., is the fifteenth president of Fisk University. Prior to his selection as president, he served as dean of the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

President Williams earned a B.S. degree in accounting at North Carolina Central University, a M.B.A. degree in accounting at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), a Ph.D. degree in accounting at the University of Georgia (Athens), and the J.D. and LL.M. (Taxation) degrees at Georgetown University Law Center. President Williams is also a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant, with a wealth of practical experiences, having worked in the public accounting profession and in the legal profession (as a corporate and tax attorney).

During his career, President Williams has made significant contributions to the Academy, receiving recognition for his outstanding teaching at Georgetown University, and three “Teacher of the Year Awards” at Florida A&M University and Texas Southern University. For his work with students and student organizations, President Williams has also received numerous recognitions and awards. His research work is widely published in scholarly and practitioner journals, including Accounting and Finance, Technovation, Issues in Accounting Education, Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting, The Journal Of Accountancy, The Practical Accountant, The Journal of Small Business Management, and The CPA Journal.

President Williams serves on a number of community and corporate boards, including the following: Baxter Community Center; the Civic Theatre; Fifth Third Bank; the Forest Hills Public Schools Foundation; Grand Rapids Arts Council; St. Mary’s Health Care; and The Washington Campus.

President Williams hails from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is married to Carole Campbell Williams (of Flint, Michigan). President and Mrs. Williams are the parents of a twenty-two-year-old daughter and an eighteen-year-old son.