MICHELLE WILLIAMS
Member, Board of Directors
Prof. Michelle Williams B.S.W. (Dal), LL.B. (Tor), LL.M. (NYU) is the Director of the Indigenous Blacks and Mi’kmaq (IB&M) Initiative at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University where she teaches criminal law and “African Nova Scotians and the Law”, and has served as an academic researcher on restorative justice. She is a member of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Race Equity Committee and the African Nova Scotian Access to Justice Judicial Committee, and helps to coordinate the Nova Scotia Judicial Mentorship Initiative. She is an active member of the African Nova Scotian UN Decade for People of African Descent (ANSDPAD) Coalition and Chairs the Coalition Committee on Legal Recognition for African Nova Scotians. In 2017, then Dalhousie University President Richard Florizone appointed Prof. Williams as co-lead of the university’s strategic priority on equity, diversity and inclusiveness, and she is currently leading the development of an African Nova Scotian Strategy for Dalhousie. Awards include the Dalhousie Law Students’ Society and Alumni Association Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching Law (2015); and the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers (CABL) Pathfinder Award (2011). Under Prof. Williams’ leadership, the IB&M Initiative has received the Lexpert Zenith Award (2016), the Canadian Race Relations Foundation Award of Excellence in Education (2014), and the Canadian Bar Association Touchstone Award (2010).