Head of Mass. Anti-Discrimination Committee to Speak

January 18, 2012

Jamie R. Williamson, commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), will speak at Johnson State College at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, in Bentley Hall, Room 207. Williamson will present her perspective on the current state of civil rights in the U.S. and take questions from the audience.

The presentation is one of several events at JSC commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and is free and open to the public.

As head of MCAD, Williamson oversees the administration, adjudication and education of civil rights matters in Massachusetts. Prior to her appointment by the governor to that post in August 2010, she was executive director of the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center. In 2005, she was appointed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court to serve on its newly created “Access to Justice Commission” to provide leadership, vision and coordination of civil rights actions affecting families and individuals in the state.

In 1995, Williamson became the first African-American woman to serve on the Pittsfield City Council. A lecturer and seminar leader on fair housing and civil rights, she is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and at Smith College, her alma mater.