Millicent D. Williams is a career public servant and graduate of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University’s School of Business and Industry in Tallahassee, FL. She is currently serving as the Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Throughout her career she has demonstrated a strong commitment to providing meaningful service to the residents, businesses, and visitors of every jurisdiction she has worked in.
Her desire to serve and ensure equitable distribution of critical resources and services is exemplified by her work in communities across the U.S., throughout the Caribbean, in western, central, and southern Africa, and in southern India. Her passion, however, is to connect with and serve local communities, demonstrating how their government can (and does) work to serve their interests.
Millicent is a five-time mayoral appointee, having served as agency director or senior executive for three separate agencies under three consecutive Washington, D.C. mayors. Previous leadership roles include Executive Director of Serve DC – The Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism and Partnerships; President/CEO of the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation; and Director of the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
While living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, she supported community growth at the City of Glenn Heights working in various roles in emergency management, parks planning, and community engagement.
Millicent rejoined PBOT in the summer of 2023 after managing PBOT’s Capital Delivery division from 2017 to 2020, then serving as PBOT Deputy Director until May 2021. After her years at PBOT, Millicent served as Otak’s Oregon/SW Washington Regional Director for the Public Sector and as Corporate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Millicent lives in Portland and is the proud mother of a 24-year-old son, Ethan. Ethan was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in early childhood. Since then, Millicent has created solutions to ensure her son—and families struggling with being classified as other-abled—mature into full, independent members of society. Her experience with her son has also influenced the way she manages teams and structures her work.