Dr. Yolanda Vivian Williams-Goliday
It is the responsibility and focus she carries as director of UIUC’s Gender & Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC), a role she has played for more than six months.
A Black and openly queer woman, Williams-Goliday serves as a guide of sorts, helping students navigate their identity and the world around them, and how they can continue to be authentic as they go about their studies and approach the workplace, she says.
“A lot of Black and Brown students that were in the community didn’t have anyone to look to when it came to their questions of who they were, how to be their authentic self when it comes to their orientation, their gender expression, [or] their gender identity,” she says.
Williams-Goliday has been helping guide students for decades, first as an academic adviser for Eastern Illinois University’s Office of Minority Affairs beginning in 1998. There, she worked with students academically underprepared for college, she says.
During her approximately 24 years at EIU, she also served as director of academic services for its athletics department; instructor in its African American studies department; and academic and retention adviser for its Office of Inclusion and Academic Engagement. And from 2002 to 2006, she served as academic adviser for Temple University.
Williams-Goliday holds a Ph.D. in educational administration (higher education leadership) from Indiana State University; a Master of Liberal Arts in African American studies from Temple; a Master of Science in Education in educational psychology and guidance (college student personnel) from EIU; a B.A. in African American studies and sociology from EIU; and an Associate of Arts in African American studies from Olive-Harvey Community College.
