Public Policy Analysis Challenge

Sodiqa Williams is currently the General Counsel and the Senior Vice President for Safer's Reentry Services at the Safer Foundation. She oversees Safer's community programs providing wraparound reentry support, intensive outpatient behavioral health, education, employment readiness, training & employment, supportive employment, housing assistance and linkages to primary care providers. She also leads Safer's residential Treatment programs in the two Adult Transition centers that Safer operates on behalf of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Ms. Williams also has significant experience in government relations, public advocacy, and community engagement. She has advocated locally and nationally to advance a progressive agenda for people with arrest or conviction records, including promoting policies and practices that reduce recidivism, eliminating barriers to reentry, increasing access to opportunities and educating employers. 

Previously, she served as the Senior Presidential Advisor at the American Bar Association and had been a project manager at Conlon & Dunn Public Strategies, a public relations and government affairs firm. She also worked for 8th Ward Alderwoman Michelle Harris and then-Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn. Ms. Williams earned her undergraduate degree in Politics from Princeton University, with a Certificate in African American Studies, and her JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law with a specialization in energy/environmental law. She was sworn into the Illinois bar on November 10, 2011 and is a member in good standing in the State Bar of Illinois. Sodiqa serves on the boards of in Place, Chicago-Kent College of Law (alumni board), and Culver Academies (trustee).