Board of Trustees

Karen Hastie Williams - Chair

Ms. Williams is a graduate of Bates College and the Catholic University School of Law.  She was a law clerk to both Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  She also served as Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Budget, and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of Management and Budget.  She is currently a retired partner in the Washington law firm of Crowell & Moring LLP where her practice has focused on public contract law, legislation, and strategic diversity counseling for corporate clients. She has served as Chair of the ABA Section of Public Contract Law. Ms. Williams is also a member of the National Contract Management Association, the Black Women Lawyers’ Association, the National Bar Association, and the Women’s Forum of Washington, D.C.  Ms. Williams was confirmed by the U.S.  Senate as one of seven Life Members of the Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board appointed by the President of the United States and served on the board from 2000-2003.

Ms. Williams community activities includes the Board of Directors of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; the Board of Trustees of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Amherst College; Chair of the Black Student Fund and The BOLD Initiative. (“Business Opportunities for Leadership Diversity”).

Ms. Williams currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Chubb Corporation (Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance Committees) ,  Continental Airlines, Inc. (Finance and Budget Committee), Gannett Company, Inc. (Lead Director & chair of the Audit Committee), SunTrust Bank, Inc (Audit Committee). and Washington Gas Holdings Company (Audit Committee).
           
Since the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley legislation, she has lectured widely on its effective implementation including participation in a SEC Roundtable comparing the impact of the legislation in Year One and Year Two.

Mrs. Williams is married to Wesley S. Williams, Jr., a retired Covington & Burling partner, who now chairs the Lockhart Companies in the U.S. Virgin Islands. They have three children and four energetic grandchildren.

Back to the Board of Trustees Listing