Category: Oral Histories

Title: Director of Education and Advocacy at Kino Border Initiative Joanna Williams (SFS’13)

As Director of Education and Advocacy at Kino Border Initiative / Iniciativa Kino para la Frontera, Joanna Williams (SFS’13) advocates for humane, just and workable migration between the U.S. and Mexico. Williams says that her Jesuit education at Georgetown and SFS was “transformative” in helping her to develop the ethical values she applies to her daily work.

“One piece was just the understanding of intercultural communication and the dynamics of power and injustice and inequality, and how to enter into that as a white American and how to be sensitive to my privilege,” she says.

She continues, “This university is about more than just success. It’s about more than just getting a job, or being powerful. [It’s about] that deeper sense of, ‘What does it mean to live in solidarity with the world? What does it mean to understand the spiritual dimension of what we do?’”