PHOTO: OWEN EGAN
Kate Williams: A passion for the place
Ironically enough, she, who was being awarded by the YWCA for being a Woman of Distinction, was at a loss for words.
Convinced that she hadn't a hope of winning in the communications category, Kate Williams, director of McGill's University Relations Office and the writer of many speeches for McGill principals, had prepared nothing.
So, uncharacteristically, her thank-you speech was the shortest of all that evening last week, and Williams, who loves to speak on subjects that matter to her -- like McGill -- regrets being so sure of defeat.
"I was so aware of what could be done, had we the resources, that I would not have expected the jury to admire what in fact has actually been accomplished."
But, of course, Williams was nominated for what she's done, both for the University and for women on campus, not for what her modest budget won't permit. Alongside keeping abreast of the myriad activities on the University's two campuses, and making sure McGill's accomplishments and attributes reach the outside world, Williams has also succeeded, in her nine years as director of URO, in putting communications higher on the agenda of the institution's decision-makers.
In her view, it is paramount that an awareness of just what kind of face McGill presents to the world is always taken into consideration.
"I feel so strongly that if you consider the question of communications right at the beginning, you don't need to later. I can't stand how communications is so often isolated from strategy... Good communication is everyone's responsibility."
In the view of Chancellor Gretta Chambers, who has known Williams for decades (Williams once spent a summer looking after Chambers's five young children), Williams's "caring approach" to university relations has made the University be "seen as a far more human place than it used to be.
"She brought that caring approach which, if you've got the intellectual rigour to back it up, is a winning approach."
Williams calls that quality the "different perspective" women bring to decision-making. In order to have more of that difference, she has worked to increase the representation of women in the upper levels of the administration. "There's something missing in an all-male department meeting or committee. It's monochrome."
In large part, it was Williams' contribution to advancing the role of women in the University that won her McGill's nomination for the YWCA prize.
Writes Honora Shaughnessy, executive director of alumni relations, in her statement of nomination: "One of Kate's most effective ways of communicating information within the University has been to send countless articles to members of the University community about what women are doing at McGill."
Williams also made sure she got herself onto influential advisory committees such as the Principal's Advisory Group (the forerunner to the Principal's Council) and was undaunted by often being the only woman at the table. "At those meetings she constantly reminded the members (all in positions of authority) who the upcoming women were and why they should be noted," continues Shaughnessy.
Among her accomplishments, Williams initiated and co-chaired McGill's popular and award-winning 175th year-long anniversary celebration in 1996. She has also been a driving force behind the University's reinvigorated web site -- another award winner.
To say that Williams is a McGill-booster is an understatement. More jaded colleagues sometimes roll their eyes at her enthusiasm for the place. Why does Williams care so much about McGill?
In part, because McGill is in her blood. The first of Montreal Neurological Institute founder Wilder Penfield's 15 grandchildren, Williams considered McGill part of her "backyard" while she was growing up. This early identification with McGill also explains why she opted to do her BA and MA at the University of New Brunswick, instead. "For me a university is an opportunity for exploration," says Williams, sipping her allongé. McGill was a little too close to home.
Mostly, though, it's been a love acquired with the experience of being here. It was only when biology professor Gordon Maclachlan, an acquaintance, urged her to send a résumé to the University, that Williams, then a content stay-at-home mother and freelancer, considered entering the world of nine-to-five .
Her youngest, Ben, was nine and her daughter Hannah, 10 when in 1985, after 11 years at home, raising her two children, studying translation part-time and freelancing in copywriting, translation and restaurant-reviewing, Williams decided to accept an offer from McGill to work as a public relations officer.
Even now, despite the frustrations of not being able to do as much as she'd like to -- "I hate the nickel and diming," she fumes momentarily -- Williams remains committed to McGill even when the head-hunters come calling.
"McGill is such a complex, dynamic institution. Even if there are problems one day, something wonderful will happen the next. It's not like working for a company where the focus is on a unidimensional mission."
Williams also values balance in her life. "People think I'm driven, but I wouldn't want to be the kind of person who sacrifices all for an executive position." Relaxation in the form of family gatherings at the Penfield family property on Lake Memphremagog, Tai Chi, dancing, cooking, gardening and, yes, housecleaning, are also important in the life of this communicator. Williams adheres to advice given her years ago by Gretta Chambers on the subject of purse selection: "Stick to the leather and avoid the brass."
Bronwyn Chester
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