Black History Today: Ada Williams Prince, courageously leading philanthropy toward a more equitable future
/Black History Today, an annual series created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond. Check back every day in February as we recognize the people actively shaping the future.
By Lindsay Hill
In a sector as white as philanthropy, in a city as white as Seattle, meeting Ada Williams Prince in 2015 was an incredibly powerful experience. Her clarity of purpose and commitment to black and brown communities across the globe, specifically through a gender-justice lens, was both refreshing and inspiring. With a background in humanitarian work, disaster response, and immigrant and refugee supports and advocacy, Ada brings a sense of urgency into a sector that can too often over-intellectualize issues that have life-or-death consequences for many.
Ada moved to Seattle in 2011 to join the OneAmerica team as the Director of Special Projects and Policy Director. In these roles she directed the women’s rights policy program, focusing on immigrant women and girls. From there, she took her talents to the Marguerite Casey Foundation, serving as a Program Officer focused on promoting racial equity and ending family poverty.
In her current role as a Program Strategy Lead at Pivotal Ventures, Ada is focused on building systems and supports focused on adolescent mental health. She brings her focus on girls of color into this work, and is a national leader and speaker on the intersection of racial and gender justice. She is also a member of the Association of Black Foundation Executives. She is a talented convener, bringing together women of color across government and philanthropy in the Seattle region, sparking partnerships and collaboration through supportive relationships.
Ada has served on the boards of Neighborhood House and Refugee Women’s Alliance in Seattle and is currently on the board of PAI (a global reproductive health organization), citiesRISE and Crisis Text Line.
As a fellow Black woman in philanthropy, Ada is an important part of my support system; a co-conspirator and collaborator. She has taken on the burden that many of us have, supporting Pivotal’s work on diversity, equity and inclusion on top of her other job responsibilities. Her courageous leadership is helping to push our sector’s work forward as we call on our organizations and colleagues to more explicitly center racial equity and social justice.
She is the proud mama to two beautiful kiddos, a wife, and a community leader. Our region is lucky to have her relentless leadership, humor, and experience. And I’m lucky to have her as a friend. For all these reasons and more, Ada Williams Prince is Black history today.
Lindsay Hill is the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the Raikes Foundation, supporting the foundation’s internal and external-facing equity development. She is also the founder of Sojourner Advising, a consulting organization focused on supporting individuals and organizations to advance liberation. She lives in Seattle with her partner and four kids and can be reached at lindsay@sojourneradvising.com.
