An Interview with Tycely Williams, Chief Development Officer, America’s Promise Alliance

00:50 Can you tell us a little bit about your current role?

02:05 You’ve had a lot of experiences as far as your professional career, and currently, you’re serving as the Chief Development Officer at America’s Promise. I’m curious, if there was a soundtrack of greatest hits related to your career, what songs would make that playlist?

Before I Let Go, Frankie Beverly and Maze 

“One of the reasons why I really connect, not only to the music, but to the words, is because there are times in life where you have to let people, let organizations.. you got to let some things go. Once you reach that place, you should not necessarily dwell in sadness, you should be grateful and happy and elated at the fact that you created magical memories and moments. BUT you’ve got to move on.”

06:22 Can you offer an example of when you’ve had to reclaim your time in the workplace?

“The vast majority of the black women that you meet will have a similar experience and perspective.”

“I had to reclaim my time by reassessing how I was spending my time. And through that creation of a mission, through identifying a vision statement, through adopting personal values, I was adamant that I would not align myself with organizations who could and would not value people who looked like me.”

14:00 What advice would you offer to other black women who are trying to amplify their voice or develop their voice and become better self-advocates?

“I would center my advice around the need to recognize that even though we are living in really heavy and hard times, we still have within reach, choice, and we have freedoms that our ancestors blood have literally connected us to this new found freedom.”

“Settle into a sense of what your individual action and/or activism is going to be.”

18:14 What kind of ancestor does Tycely Williams want to be?

“I want to be an ancestor that lifts up rather than tears down.”