Sherri M. Williams

Dr. Sherri Williams is a race and representation researcher and journalism and media studies professor at American University in Washington D.C. Williams is interested in how marginalized groups, especially Black women, are depicted in media and how they use social media to advocate for representation and social justice. She believes that storytelling can be used as a tool for liberation. Williams is passionate about representation in news and newsroom diversity and often partners with national newsrooms to get her students’ work published. Williams earned the National Association of Black Journalists’ Journalism Educator of the Year Award in 2021 and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Best Practices in Teaching Award in 2024. She worked as a journalist for a decade in Jackson, Mississippi and Columbus, Ohio before she transitioned into academia. Williams still sometimes produces journalism as a contributing writer for national publications. Williams is a proud historically Black college graduate of Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi and she earned a master’s and a doctoral degree at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Williams was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She is an amateur singer and lover of music and television, especially A Different World, Living Single and P-Valley.