Matthew Wesley Williams

Matthew Wesley Williams is the 11th President of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), a historically Black ecumenical graduate theological school, located in the Atlanta University Center. He is a recognized executive in the field of theological education who has built national programs and partnerships among top-level leaders to advance innovative opportunities for institutional change, faculty development, doctoral education, leadership formation, young adult vocational discernment, diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. Before his appointment to the ITC, Williams was the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE), a national leadership incubator that cultivates wise, faithful and courageous leaders who make a difference in the world through the church and academy. During Williams’ 15 years with FTE, he helped to transform and guide FTE’s initiatives in recruitment and leadership development for emerging leaders and rising scholars of color exploring and pursuing the vocations of pastoral ministry, scholarship, and other forms of faith-rooted leadership. At FTE, he cultivated and advised a network of over 300 faculty and students of color nationwide; providing mentoring and professional development to doctoral students, and facilitating placement of early career Ph.D.s. He also advised and designed program interventions for senior academic and other social sector executive leaders facing strategic challenges with value-added solutions that meet the cause-driven missions of their organizations. He is a thriving cancer survivor, committed to utilizing his academic, activist, and pastoral background in the spirit of Ella Baker who observed: “I have always thought that what is needed is the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership in others.” He holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center (2004), in Atlanta. He also holds two bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Philosophy & Religion from Florida A&M University (1998). He is an ordained ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is the co-author of Another Way: Living and Leading Change on Purpose, to be published in 2020 with Chalice Press. Originally from Chicago, Matthew resides in the Atlanta metropolitan area with his wife Alexis and children Zuri and Sage.