Faculty

Nadia Williams is full-time faculty in the School of Design Strategies.  Nadia’s 15+ years working in education have been a great source of her joy.  Her creative practice is currently grounded in family history research and creating textile heirlooms as a practice of freedom and healing, exploring her roots in México, Panamá and Jamaica. Nadia has collaborated on a range of university-wide initiatives of access, equity and social justice, and is continually impressed by the continuum of students who hold The New School accountable to social justice values. As Director of the Parsons Scholars Program for nine years, Nadia cultivated a space where NYC high school students explore art and design within a curriculum that centers people of color from low income backgrounds.  

Nadia considers her roles as educator, artist, and mother to be commitments to sustaining the brilliant legacies of historically marginalized communities. Some of her most profound learning (and unlearning) happened after she moved to Mexico during design collaborations in Mayan and Mixteca communities that center indigenous, matriarchal knowledge. She has shared her work through national platforms such as Race Forward’s Facing Race conference in Detroit, the Reconstructing Practice conference on antiracist curriculum at Art Center College of Design in California, and at NCORE (the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education) in Texas.  She is an alumna of the CCCADI (Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute) Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship and co-founder of the Radical Mama Educator inquiry-to-action group through NYCoRE (NY Collective of Radical Educators). She was a 2024-25 Faculty Fellow in the Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence