A Project of
the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls,
the Women's Museum of California,
SDSU Women's Studies Department, and UCSD Women's Center.
Dr. Francine Foster Williams, PhD
2022
Bridge Builder
Throughout Dr. Williams' more than 40 years as an educator and administrator for the San Diego Unified School District, she coached teachers on how to instruct diverse children through a lens of race, human relations, and equity. She believed that young people should be encouraged to read and write stories about their own families and culture as a bridge to literacy and learning about the lives and cultures of others.
She was particularly concerned with the status of girls and that expectations for their academic achievement would always remain high.
During the 1990s and over the span of ten years, she raised nearly $4 million in funding that benefitted San Diego schools and the children they served.