Ben Williams, PhD is NAPE’s new CEO

Ben Williams, PhD, former NAPE Vice President of Programs, is the new CEO of the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE). Mimi Lufkin, who had served as NAPE’s CEO since 1995, retired on September 1, 2018.

Ben is excited to work with NAPE’s members and its partners in education and workforce development, policy, and business and industry, to advance the organization’s mission: to build educators’ capacity to implement effective solutions to increase student access, educational equity, and workforce diversity. He is dedicated fully to NAPE’s Vision that every person is able to fulfill their potential through equal access to and equity in educational options that lead to the entire spectrum of career choices. This year, Ben will take NAPE through its next strategic planning phase and work with the leadership of the Foundation and the membership organization to set the direction for the organization’s growth into the future.

In his capacity as Vice President of Programs, Ben oversaw all program development and implementation, including professional development/learning, research and evaluation, and technical assistance. He will continue to serve as principal investigator (PI) for two NSF-funded projects, which facilitate the training and technical assistance of state and local educators and leaders in implementing research- and evidence-based strategies to increase the participation, persistence, and program completion of under-represented students, based on gender, race and ethnicity, disability, socioeconomics, and other factors, in CTE and STEM.

Ben Williams, PhD is a national expert on equity in CTE, and a Mentor Instructor in NAPE’s two Comprehensive Educational Equity Programs:  The Program Improvement Process for Equity (PIPE™) and Micromessaging to Reach and Teach Every Student™ (Micromessaging). In 2015, he co-authored the NAPE Explore Nontraditional Careers toolkit, which provides tools and activities for educators and counselors to more effectively recruit and retain students in nontraditional career preparation programs. In 2016, he helped to develop the Ohio Career Guidebooks to broaden participation in STEM through CTE, and he has been a regular contributor to ACTE Techniques Magazine on the impact of NAPE’s work.

Prior to joining NAPE, Ben spent 17 years working in higher education, including 12 years at Columbus State Community College in Columbus, Ohio, where he coordinated the secondary career-technical recruitment process, worked as an academic advising administrator and oversaw the Carl D. Perkins Grant. Ben began his work with NAPE as a volunteer leader with the NSF-funded STEM Equity Pipeline Project in 2009; he later became a consultant with NAPE and was instrumental in the development and implementation of the latest iteration of PIPE, and he came on board full-time with NAPE in 2015. He is deeply passionate about our work and excited to work with the NAPE membership and colleagues throughout the country dedicated and committed to access, equity, and diversity in education and careers.

Ben Williams, PhD earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Philosophy from Wheaton College, Massachusetts; his Master of Arts in Student Affairs Administration and Higher Education and his Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership, from The Ohio State University.