Crystal Williams is a national speaker, author, foster care advocate, and foster care alumna. She uses the arts to promote individual and community change. Crystal graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in English/Creative Writing/Theater Studies and received her MBA from Georgia State University with a focus in organizational management. Crystal believes strongly that, when serving youth and families in excellence, astronomical impact can be made. This is because one of God’s oldest designs, the family, still works! Policies and practice are beginning to realign and ask: how can me make families stronger so that children can thrive? Crystal decided to focus her career on helping organizations operate more efficiently so that families can thrive. This interest has allowed her to work with national and international organizations in the areas of marketing and communications, strategy and implementation, fundraising and community mobilization, and training and curriculum development. She has also volunteered as the theater director for the teen ministry of an international ministry working directly with youth and creative design.

Crystal has served as a member of Georgia Governor’s Council for child welfare reform, she is certified in Life Stories® Theatre curriculum through the Theatre Lab in Washington D.C., and she is a founding member of an advocacy group for foster youth in Georgia called Georgia EmpowerMEnt. Crystal was a young fellow for the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative through the Annie E. Casey Foundation where she traveled the nation as an advocate for foster children and used her gift of spoken word poetry to challenge and motivate audiences. As a 2017 – 2018 Fellow with the American India Foundation, Crystal worked with organizations in India as a business operations strategy consultant because she wanted to broaden her perspective and use her skills to impact organizations outside of her comfort zone.

Crystal is currently a fellow with Foster America working in Ohio’s Department of Job and Family Services as a project manager on Family First Prevention Services Act implementation. Foster America is a non-profit organization that recruits cross-disciplined professionals to work and make a difference in child welfare and her role aligns with her desire to help organizations thrive so that families and communities can truly benefit from the services offered and also thrive. Crystal’s personal mission is to inspire people to use their gifts for good to leave their mark on this world in permanent ink.