Founder and President, The Stay Strong Foundation, Inspirational
Author And Mental Health Advocate
Terrie is a social worker by training who became a successful public
relations pro by her own design, inscribed her prominence as an author
of the successful business and inspirational story, and has now emerged
as an advocate for youth and those who battle depression.
The multi-chaptered story of Terrie Williams is one of phenomenal success
and encouragement. She launched The Terrie Williams Agency in 1988—a
company that would become one of the country’s most successful
public relations and communications firms—and through the years
has handled the biggest names in entertainment, sports, business, and
politics from Miles Davis, Eddie Murphy and Johnnie L. Cochran to Essence
Communications Partners, HBO and Time Warner.
Terrie is the author of three successful books: the business bestseller
The Personal Touch: What You Really Need to Succeed in Today’s
Fast-Paced Business World; the inspirational A Plentiful Harvest:
Creating Balance and Harmony through the Seven Living Virtues;
and Stay Strong: Simple Life Lessons for Teens, the basis for
the 2001 launch of The Stay Strong Foundation, a national non-profit
designed to educate and encourage American youth.
Terrie’s current work, a book entitled Black Pain: It Just
Looks Like We’re Not Hurting, was published by Scribner in
January 2008 and tells the untold story of depression among African-Americans
as well as Terrie’s tale of her own chronic and crippling depression—a
revealing narrative she shared in the June 2005 issue of ESSENCE
magazine.
As guest host for “The Down & Up Show” on Depressionisreal.org
podcast, Terrie has interviewed guests such as Andrew Solomon, author
of the critically acclaimed, Noonday Demon former New Jersey
First Lady and depression survivor Mary Jo Codey; Jerry Reed, executive
director of the SPAN-USA—the Suicide Prevention Action Network;
and Dr. Yoasif Rofa, an Iraqi psychiatrist treating depression in his
homeland.
Today Terrie works tirelessly to reach out to individuals who have
suffered or are now suffering—from the struggling high school
student, to the successful executive who puts forth the daily “mask”,
to the former gang member, the incarcerated and those who served time
but were later proven innocent. She is a woman on fire, a woman on a
mission to help others enter (and re-enter) society as productive and
contributing members of their community.
Terrie’s accomplishments have been chronicled in numerous publications
as Adweek, Jet Magazine, The Boston Globe, New York Daily News,
Washington Post, and Crain’s New York Business.
She is a highly sought-after speaker and has shared her unique talent
with many Fortune 500 companies and diverse organizations, from New
York University to the National Hockey League. She and her Agency have
been featured as case studies in public relations seminars, college
texts, industry newsletters, and novels. Her drive to “save the
world” leads her and the efforts of The Stay Strong Foundation
to urge corporate and individual responsibility, and to offer educational
and leadership workshops, internships, and mentoring opportunities for
youth.
Terrie’s honors include The Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural
& Minority Medicine’s 2006 Eagle Fly Free Award for her work
as a depression survivor and her efforts to bring widespread attention
to the topic. She has also received The New York Women in Communications
Matrix Award in Public Relations—the first woman of color to receive
this award in the award’s 70-year history, the PRSA New York Chapter’s
Phillip Dorf Mentoring Award, and The Citizen’s Committee for
New York Marietta Tree Award for Public Service. In 1996 she was the
first person of color honored with the Vernon C. Schranz Distinguished
Lectureship at Ball State University, and in 1998 she donated her papers
to the Howard University Moorland-Springarn Research Center Archives.
Terrie has a B. A. (cum laude) in Psychology and Sociology from Brandeis
University, and an M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University.