Jill Williams
M.A. in Conflict Resolution, 2003
Hometown: Davidson, NC
For
the past three years, Jill has served as the Assistant Director
of the Lilly
Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation at Davidson
College. In this position, she creates opportunities
for students to reflect on their sense of identity and vocation.
A program called Vocational
Vertigo supports college sophomores by offering sustained small
group dialogues in which students from diverse backgrounds learn
to discuss identity issues (race/ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic
class, abilities and disabilities, gender, and sexuality). This
program grew out of Jill’s
work in the Conflict Resolution program.
In 2003, Jill presented
a paper on the Vocational Vertigo program at a Friends
Association for Higher Education conference entitled Seeking
a Praxis of Peace and
published another paper in the University of South Carolina’s E-Source
for College Transitions entitled Identity, Questions, and
Worldviews: Supporting Sophomores during the Sophomore Slump.
Jill mediates disputes raised in the criminal
court system through the Cabarrus County Mediation Center. She has recently
begun working with the Davidson Housing Coalition, (an organization dedicated
to creating and maintaining affordable housing in Davidson, NC), where
she facilitates potentially volatile residents’ association meetings and mediates other neighborhood disputes. Finally,
Jill is currently working with Love
of Learning, a summer high school program, to incorporate a peer mediation
program and a course on conflict resolution.
About her experience at Antioch University McGregor,
Jill says, “My
favorite aspect of the Conflict Resolution Program is the diverse
cohort of classmates. This program afforded me the opportunity to develop
relationships with people from a much broader range of backgrounds than
I would have experienced in a more traditional, residential graduate program.
The faculty members were wonderful resources who challenged us regularly,
and I found my interactions within the cohort to be an equally enriching
part of my education.”
