Williams is a Presidential Scholar pursuing her PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. She is also the Lab Manager of The Narrative Transformation Lab at the Carter School. In December 2020, she received an M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution with a Concentration in Media, Narrative, and Public Discourse from the Carter School. Her master’s thesis, titled “‘I’m Curious About You’: The Role of Social Identity and Narrative Genre in Musicking Turkish–Kurdish Reconciliation,” was supported by two grants from the Carter School, the Joan Shapiro Scholarship and the Stephen M. Cumbie and Druscilla French Graduate Fellowship.
While a master’s student at the Carter School, she served as the school’s Storyteller / News Editor. She also served in a number of roles at the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race, including as Interim Associate Director and Director of Communications. Prior to pursuing her master’s degree, she was a Program Officer at Turkish Heritage Organization. During the 2015–16 academic year, she was based at the Center for African Studies at Ankara University in Turkey, where she studied the role of non-state actors in Turkey’s relations with Sub-Saharan African countries under a Fulbright U.S. Student Program research grant. Prior to her Fulbright grant period, she was a Program Associate at Partnership for a Secure America in Washington, DC.