Bernett Williams almost didn’t apply for the job.
In 1996, she became the Akron Urban League’s director of education. But she never saw herself as an educator and couldn’t live on the salary. To make matters worse, the organization with an annual budget of $1.2 million had a $261,000 deficit. Its headquarters was deteriorating and its future uncertain.
One truth overrode the facts: Williams believed in the Urban League’s mission. Things like helping young people get their GEDs and moving inner-city moms from welfare to work had great significance to her.
“I loved the possibility that people could go from where they were to a better place,” Williams says. From the start, her work at the Urban League felt more like a ministry than a job.
Within a year, at age 31, she stepped up to be interim director of the beleaguered organization. “She was young, dynamic, very bright and extremely courageous,” says Linda Omobien, a school board member at that time and current Akron councilwoman at large.
Omobien still remembers when a utility worker came in to turn off the water as Williams was meeting to deal with the Urban League’s financial problems. “It was a frightening experience,” Omobien says. “She faced it head on.”
Cutting spending in 1997 by nearly $200,000, Williams found ways to trim losses and looked for new sources of funding. By the end of 1998, with the losses down to just $11,000, she was named executive director and began the process of long-term planning.
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LIFE LESSONS
⊲ Even the small wins matter.
⊲ If you think people are watching you all the time, it’s because they are.
⊲ Giving back isn’t optional; it’s our responsibility. I don’t care who you are or what you’re doing; you have something to give.
⊲ The desk presents a barrier. If we’re going to talk, I’m coming out from behind the desk so you know you have my full attention and respect.
⊲ Sometimes nice isn’t what’s needed. Sometimes, we need to check each other in the spirit of love. If you’re my friend, I want to be able to tell you the truth.
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Known for her timing (“I bore easily,” she says), Williams pursued new ways to accomplish her goals. She replaced the traditional fundraising banquet with a luncheon and did away with the keynote speaker in favor of a few client testimonials. In the process, she showed donors that she valued their time, saved money on the event and brought in more donations.
“Whatever we did, I wanted it to end it on a high note,” she says.
Williams’ most public success came when she spearheaded a $5 million capital campaign to build a new home for the Urban League. That project, completed in 2007, linked the headquarters to a new school and community center. It became a capstone of broader neighborhood revitalization efforts that included a federal grant for housing improvements, a new branch library and an expansion at the Akron Zoo.
Ever conscious that it takes a great team to accomplish great things, she encourages the people around her to reach beyond what they felt capable of doing. When Sheri Myricks became Williams’ administrative assistant, she was surprised to be included on the leadership team and to be expected to do more than just take notes. She began setting “stretch goals” for herself after watching Williams.
“Bernett gave me opportunity after opportunity to jump in and go for it,” Myricks says.
Today, Myricks is the Urban League’s director of marketing. She says Williams’ “nurture, encouragement and applause” helped her find her niche.
Rochelle Fisher agrees. She credits Williams with teaching her how to get a seat at the table in decisions that matter.
“She has this great and gracious way of being in your face without being in your face,” Fisher says.
Fisher held three progressively more demanding management positions at the Urban League before leaving to become executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Summit County.
Realizing that Fisher had gone as far as she could internally, Williams did something most bosses would not. “She pushed me out the door [of the Urban League] in the wonderful way that she does,” Fisher says. “I would never be leading a $3 million nonprofit in Summit County if I never met her.”
Williams took on her own fresh challenge in February by “moving out of the way” at the Urban League and becoming vice president of external relations for Akron Children’s Hospital. Her new areas of responsibility include child advocacy, government affairs, a community benefit initiative and expanding the hospital’s footprint beyond medical care in Akron, Youngstown and Cleveland.
“This feels right,” says Williams, following her heart and her internal clock. “The time feels right.”