Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Williams.
Hi Natalie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in Overtown, Miami, in a one-bedroom apartment with my mother and four siblings. We lived below the poverty line, and I also faced medical challenges early in life, including being born with a hole in my heart. If my future had been based on statistics, especially the statistics often tied to little Black and Brown children growing up in communities like mine, I would not be where I am today. But I was blessed to be raised by a woman who embodied resilience, strength, and hard work, and that example shaped the woman I became.
Today, I serve as the Senior Director of Education and Exhibits at Miami Children’s Museum. My journey has been shaped by hard work, faith, incredible mentors, and the opportunities I’ve had to learn from amazing people along the way. Those experiences have not only opened doors for me, but they have also shown me how important it is to create pathways for others. That is why mentoring, reciprocity, and giving back to my community are at the heart of everything I do.
My first leadership opportunity was with the Department of Education school in Tallahassee, Florida. From there, a regional manager referred me for a Field Director position, which led to me serving as the Executive Director of 20 Pine in New York City with Bright Horizons Family Solutions. That role taught me how to lead with HEART and deepened my understanding of what it means to lead people with both excellence and compassion. Later, I returned to Florida when a colleague invited me to join a special project with Walt Disney Pavilion and AdventHealth to open the first comprehensive preschool of its kind in Central Florida.
Over the last 20 years, I have had the privilege of developing directors, leaders, and children through intentional teaching, mentoring, and reciprocity. That work has been some of the most meaningful of my life. For the past 5 1/2 years, I have served as Director of Education, overseeing our onsite preschool, onsite afterschool program, six offsite afterschool programs, STEAM programming, and a research project in partnership with the University of Miami. I have also had the incredible benefit of being mentored and supported by professors while earning my master’s degree at the University of Miami, which further expanded my vision for what educational leadership can look like.
I also have a deep love for Black art, museums, and museum education. I believe museums are powerful spaces for storytelling, belonging, learning, and representation. As a result of the research project, I became a founding member of the Museum Playful Learning Collective, which creates space for cultural institutions deeply invested in museum education to build networks, share best practices, and find community with one another. Community is incredibly important to me and central to the work I do.
Above all, I am a mother to a 12-year-old son and a strong advocate for all children, especially those who are too often burdened by low expectations and limited by the assumptions others place on them because of their zip code or the side of the city they call home. I do this work for them. I do it because I know what is possible when someone sees your potential before the world does.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s interesting because when people ask, “Tell me your story,” we do not always immediately think about the struggles. But I carry mine proudly, because they have truly shaped who I am.
I have experienced many of the struggles people might consider typical, and some that were deeply personal. I grew up with an absent father. As a young Black woman in majority-white schools, I faced identity struggles early on and had to learn who I was in spaces that did not always reflect or affirm me. I was also abused as a child by a family member, and that impacted my sense of self, my self-image, and my journey toward acceptance in ways I am still unpacking and healing from.
I have also struggled in relationships, with being misunderstood, and with the way people perceive strong Black women. Too often, when I show up fully affirmed, confident, and powerful, that is misread as aggression, when in reality I am simply standing in my truth. Even now, I continue to navigate the very real tension between career and motherhood. I strive for excellence in both, and at times finding balance is still a challenge.
At the same time, I feel deeply blessed. I was raised by the kind of mother who never said no to the endless possibilities of life. She allowed me to imagine, explore, and believe beyond my circumstances. Lately, I have been doing a lot of research around child agency, and I realize that was one of the greatest gifts she gave me. Having agency as a child helped me overcome so many of the things that could have limited me.
As an adult, I also came into my identity more fully and became a member of the LGBTQ community. But even that, I do not frame as a struggle. It is part of my story, part of my becoming, and part of why I am triumphant today.
So yes, I have struggled. But I do not see those experiences as things that broke me. I see them as part of what built me. They shaped my strength, deepened my compassion, and continue to inform the way I lead, love, mother, and serve. My story is not just about survival. It is about triumph, truth, and the power of becoming.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
What I am most proud of is the very thing that sets me apart: I show up as my authentic self in every space I enter. I am bold in every room. From my love of bold colors and unconventional fashion sense to my bold approaches to education, leadership, museum education, and my deep appreciation for Black art, I do not apologize for who I am. I cannot and will not be made to feel confined by my title, my position, or anyone else’s opinion of what I should look like, sound like, or act like based on whatever box they have placed me in.
That same authenticity shapes how I lead and how I pour into others. I am deeply proud of being a lifter of people. I believe in championing others to become the best versions of themselves, and I lead with reciprocity, love, support, loyalty, and kindness. I am a fearless and unapologetic leader, and I encourage my mentees to be the same.
One thing I feel strongly about is making room for the next generation while also honoring the wisdom of those who came before us. There is room for both seasoned professionals and new professionals, and I believe the strongest spaces are the ones where both can thrive together. Emerging professionals excite me with their skill sets, their fresh ideas, and the ways they challenge us to think differently. I love watching them find themselves professionally and personally, and being a part of that journey is incredibly fulfilling to me.
So many seasoned professionals fear making space for young professionals, but I have never believed leadership is about holding on to power. Everybody deserves a turn. We cannot sit in our corner offices forever, although some people intend to. For me, leadership is about opening doors, sharing knowledge, and creating pathways.
Over the last 20 years, my predecessors, mentors, supervisors, and professors made room for me. They saw something in me, invested in me, and gave me opportunities to grow. Because of that, I believe it is my responsibility to do the same for others. I want young professionals to know there is space for them, their voices matter, and their leadership belongs in the room too.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My second-grade teacher, Mrs. Ross, will always hold a special place in my heart. I was attending Fienberg-Fisher Elementary on South Beach, and it was one of the most magical and nurturing school years of my life. She saw something in me early on and had me tested for the gifted program. More than that, she poured into all of us as if we were her own children.
Mrs. Ross showed me what love could look like outside of my mother’s love. She taught me how to read, how to believe in myself, and how powerful a teacher’s care can be in the life of a child. She is the reason I wanted to be a teacher, why I knew my calling was in early childhood education, and why I came to understand the power of education delivered through a loving human being. I can still remember how she smelled like a field of roses. She was truly an incredible teacher, and her impact has stayed with me all these years. Love you always, Mrs. Ross.
