Katrina Harden Williams

Mrs. Katrina Harden Williams has been an educator over the past 28 years in higher education and public-school education. For the past three years she has served as a middle school teacher in Ames, Iowa. She was also an Academic Advisor at Iowa State University and a former Director of the Mathematics Laboratory at Spelman College. Katrina is currently working toward a doctoral degree with her sights on continuing to make larger contributions to math education as a professor.

Katrina is the inaugural AIAA-American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2022 Trailblazing STEM Educator Award winner, a 2021-2022 Iowa’s Fierce and Fearless STEM Teacher Recipient and a Code.org Computer Science (CS) Discoveries Iowa educator. Katrina was also an invited speaker for several Iowa State University initiatives: the PWISE-Program for Women in Science Engineering Go Further STEM Conference & ASTEM and Educational Professional for the Science Bound CyCLIMB-Challenge, Learn, Inspire, Master and Believe, SHPS-MAES-Society of Hispanic Professionals-Mexican Americans Engineering and Science Youth Keynote Speaker events. She is a parent and educational advocate with many organizations: Jewels Academy in Des Moines, Iowa, AIPCA-Ames International Partner Cities Association, the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative: Make It OK Back The Black steering committee member, the SCCAN-Story County College Access Network and ITAG- Iowa Talented and Gifted and gladly serves as a certified group facilitator with SENG-Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (on-line and in-person).  Katrina is also a MCPC-Morehouse College Parent Council servant leader for Region 6: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Katrina received her Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in Little Rock, Arkansas and a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. Katrina is a proud member of EDGE-Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education. She holds certifications to teach mathematics on the secondary level in multiple states, is a certified gifted educator and certified SPED-Special Education educator and driver’s education instructor.