Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – Mayor Wanda Williams has been busy during the second week of March. Monday, she met with Congressman Scott Perry to establish a working relationship, and the pair made a pact to collaborate on future projects. During the meeting, Williams expressed her vision for the future of Harrisburg.
On Tuesday, Mayor Williams held a roundtable meeting focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion with dozens of professionals. Williams reportedly secured a commitment from more than 40 local, state, and national leaders in the public and private sector to create inclusion and equity in the capital city.
The plan of the collective is to develop strategies to address, and ultimately, eradicate structural and systemic racial and economic disparities.
“Creating a more equitable city for the people of Harrisburg is among my top priorities,” Mayor Williams said. “We want to have inclusion. We talk about being diverse. Everybody needs to be held accountable and it starts with leading from this administration.”
Mayor Williams’ collective consists of four subcommittees, focused on specific areas of which her administration is focused on improving: Education, Health, Law, and Workforce. Committees will meet virtually every month, and the whole roundtable will meet virtually every other month.
The education committee will be chaired by Dr. Travis Waters, a Shippensburg associate professor who is a former superintendent of Steelton-Highspire. The health committee will be chaired by diversity coordinator Tina Nixon of UPMC. The law committee will be chaired by Sheldon Murray of Diversity Inclusion Professionals of Central PA. The workforce committee will be chaired by Alisa Harris of UGI Legislative Affairs.
Other commitments were made by representatives of Penn State Health, PA Media Group, Capital Region Water, Harrisburg City Council, PA Diversity Coalition, Hamilton Health Center, PA Turnpike Commission, ABC27, Pa. Department of Health, Hollywood Casino, Harrisburg Regional Chamber & Capital Region Economic Development, Pennsylvania State Police, Harrisburg Area Community College, Temple, Pa. Department of Education, etc.
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