Board Director & Public Policy Strategist

Sandra R. Williams has built her career at the intersection of policy, capital, and community; an intersection that is increasingly central to corporate value creation. Over 25 years she has moved fluidly between legislative chambers, and boardrooms, mastering the levers that shape market access, regulatory risk, and stakeholder trust.

Private-Sector Impact

• Williams served as Director of State Government Affairs for Charter Communications (Spectrum), the second largest broadband provider in the United States. Reporting to the regional president, she led Spectrum’s public-policy agenda across Northeast Ohio one of the company’s most competitive geographies advancing legislation, permitting, and grant strategies that support 2 million customers and more than 5,000 employees. Her portfolio covers: Regulatory & Funding Strategy – Aligning Charter with state infrastructure programs and state broadband-deployment grants, unlocking new revenue while ensuring ROI discipline.
• Risk Radar – Advised senior leadership on political, economic, and ESG headwinds; translating complex policy signals into actionable business risk registers.
• Stakeholder Diplomacy – Managed relationships with governors’ offices, public-utility commissions, and community coalitions to safeguard brand reputation and accelerate market entry.
• This operating exposure gave Williams the day-to-day P&L literacy, data-driven decision mindset, and cross-functional collaboration style demanded of modern corporate directors.

Public-Sector Governance

Before joining Charter, Williams spent 22 years in the Ohio General Assembly with almost 16 years in the House of Representatives and later as State Senator for District 21. Key leadership assignments included:

• Vice-Chair, Utilities Committee (House & Senate) – Oversight of electric-generation, transmission-siting, and broadband-deployment statutes.
• Vice-Chair, Finance Committee & Subcommittee on Capital Appropriations – Stewardship of Ohio’s $75 billion biennial budget; evaluation of economic-development tax incentives and bond issuances.
• Member, Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) – Regulatory scrubbing authority over 500+ state agencies.

Her legislative track record produced tangible economic value:

• Secured >$500 million for hazardous brownfield clean-ups to catalyze industrial redevelopment;
• Mandated minority-contractor participation thresholds in state construction, expanding supplier diversity;
• Championed graduation-rate reforms that lifted Cleveland Metropolitan School District from 40 % to 80 % over ten years.

These outcomes illustrate the fiduciary discipline, long-horizon thinking, and ESG sensibility that parallel corporate-board mandates.

OLBC Leadership + Economic Results

 As the former President of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OLBC), she successfully negotiated an agreement that ensured African American businesses received 20% of $1 billion in construction contracts and a percentage of goods and services at Ohio’s four casinos. She also secured 20% of two $1 billion construction projects at The Ohio State University Hospital that led to Cleveland and Ohio minority businesses earning millions of dollars in contracts. 

Education + Community Service

As part of OLBC’s commitment to higher education, she created the OLBC scholarship fund, which provides scholarships to Ohio students. Senator Sandra Williams has an outstanding record of community service and is a true stateswoman. 

Senator Sandra Williams is actively involved in the community as an active member of the following organizations: Life-Member of the National Council of Negro Women, Life-Member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Top Ladies of Distinction (TLOD), the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World, and the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church.