About the President

"To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Required"

The opening chapter of the amazing success story of Terrie Williams was first written back in 1988 when Terrie launched her public relations and communications agency. The company would become one of the country’s most successful public relations firms—handling through the years the biggest names in entertainment, sports, business, and politics. Clients included Miles Davis, Eddie Murphy, Johnnie L. Cochran, Essence Communications Partners, Time Warner, HBO and dozens of other notable personalities and corporations.

Terrie is a clinical social worker by training who became a successful public relations pro by her own design. Over the years she has also inscribed her prominence as an author of the successful business and inspirational story, and she has emerged as a passionate advocate for youth and those who battle depression.

But it must rightfully be noted that the accomplishments of The Terrie Williams Agency have always served as a catalyst for her other successful endeavors. Her public relations achievements—and that of the Agency’s—have been featured as case studies in PR seminars, college texts, industry newsletters, and novels. Terrie’s triumphs have been chronicled in numerous publications such as Adweek, Jet Magazine, The Boston Globe, New York Daily News, Washington Post, Crain’s New York Business and People Magazine. She is a highly sought-after speaker and has shared her unique talent with many Fortune 500 companies and diverse organizations, from New York University to the National Hockey League.

She has also received countless honors and awards, including: The New York Women in Communications Matrix Award in Public Relations (she was the first woman of color to receive this award in its 70-year history); the PRSA New York Chapter’s Phillip Dorf Mentoring Award; and The Citizen’s Committee for New York Marietta Tree Award for Public Service. In 1996 she was the first person of color honored with the Vernon C. Schranz Distinguished Lectureship at Ball State University, and in 1998 she donated her papers to the Howard University Moorland-Springarn Research Center Archives.

Terrie is the author of three successful books: the business bestseller The Personal Touch: What You Really Need to Succeed in Today’s Fast-Paced Business World; the inspirational A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony through the Seven Living Virtues; and Stay Strong: Simple Life Lessons for Teens, the basis for the 2001 launch of The Stay Strong Foundation, a national non-profit designed to educate and encourage American youth.

Terrie’s current work, a book entitled Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting, will be published by Scribner in January 2008 and will tell the untold story of depression among African-Americans as well as Terrie’s tale of her own chronic and crippling depression—a revealing narrative she shared in the June 2005 issue of ESSENCE magazine.

And she continues to work tirelessly to reach out to individuals who have suffered or are now suffering—from the struggling high school student, to the successful executive who puts forth the daily “mask”, to the gang member, the incarcerated and those who served time but were later proven innocent. Her drive to “save the world” leads her and the efforts of The Stay Strong Foundation to urge corporate and individual responsibility and to offer educational and leadership workshops, internships, and mentoring opportunities for youth.

Terrie has a B. A. (cum laude) in Psychology and Sociology from Brandeis University, and an M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University.

If you’ve got a few minutes ☺ and would like to read more about Terrie and all that she’s done--and is doing—please visit www.thestaystrongfoundation.org and www.blackpain.org for the complete Terrie Williams biography.

Terrie Williams