VP, Marketing, Communications & Thought Leadership
Deidra Parrish Williams has expertly leveraged decades of corporate communications, community impact and stakeholder engagement to optimize corporate-external alliances in ways that center sustainability and elevate the brand. She led corporate citizenship for global climate solutions and sustainability leader, Trane Technologies, executing a bold new strategy that garnered success in earned media, employee engagement and earned a coveted position on Points of Light’s Civic 50 list of the top US corporate citizens.
Deidra believes that corporate citizenship is a necessary agent in a healthy society, and her leadership has produced award-winning work, including at Cablevision, and as founding executive director of NuHealth Foundation, the philanthropic arm for a New York safety net health system. She has also led unique community impact programs generating millions of dollars of revenue, as well as campaigns that have directed tens of millions of charitable dollars, social capital, and allyship for marginalized communities.
Deidra has enjoyed meaningful board engagements including with the Bethpage Federal Credit Union, The Nassau County Holocaust Museum, Project GRAD, and the Energeia Partnership at Molly College. She currently serves on the board of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Foundation and is an advisory board member to the Collective for Youth Empowerment in STEM and Society, an initiative of the Afterschool Alliance.
Deidra started her career as a journalist, and today, storytelling remains paramount in her work as she generates clarity and advocacy to advance the position of those who lack access and influence. Deidra is a frequent speaker and author on the criticality to society of supporting CSR’s shared value model. She is also a former journalist with many published works, from features and Op-Eds to a 2017 novel, The Current’s Whisper.