Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and International Relations Emerita, UMass Office of the President
Marcellette Gailliard-Gay Williams is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate holding a B.A. degree with Highest Honor in Comparative Literature, an M.A. degree in English and Comparative Literature and a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Michigan State University. When she joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s top administrative team as Deputy Chancellor in January 1994, she took the first step in a relationship with the University that would span a quarter of a century — to include 11 years as a tenured professor in English and Comparative Literature and Deputy Chancellor and then Chancellor at the Amherst campus, followed by 14 years at the system office as Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and International Relations, with a capstone retirement year as Vice President and Senior Executive Associate for International Strategy.
Williams was the first woman to serve as Chancellor at UMass Amherst, In addition to stabilizing the campus through the trauma of September 11, she led the campus through one of its most challenging periods of budgetary pressures, which involved program reductions and administrative reorganization throughout the University. Throughout her tenure and while emphasizing the totality of the University mission, Williams advocated for the importance of community, collaboration, interdisciplinary understanding and human enablement. Her educational philosophy emphasized “living values” and a creation of a learning environment through the integration of knowledge and scholarship that served the formation of more complete and enabled human beings.
Prior to serving as Chancellor, Williams served for seven and a half years as Deputy Chancellor with cross-cutting responsibilities in areas including budgeting, planning and information technologies. During her tenure as Deputy Chancellor, a major technology campus initiative created network connectivity in all campus buildings; established new public access PC areas; purchased additional computer projection equipment for classrooms and auditoria; expanded central network servers; and began implementation of an integrated Student Information System.
Williams has also taught and consulted throughout Asia and in Europe and Africa. She has served on numerous boards and has held local, state, regional, national and international positions. She retired in July 2019 after fifty years of distinguished service as a tenured professor/administrator at two U.S top land grant Research-1 universities—Michigan State University and the University of Massachusetts.
In May 2022, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.