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Barbara Bolling-Williams

Member, National Board of Directors

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Barbara Bolling-Williams - NAACP Board of Directors

Barbara Bolling-Williams was elected to the NAACP National Board of Directors, in 2012, after having served as a member of the NAACP Foundation (formerly, Special Contribution Fund Trustee) for nine years. At the Board level: she chairs the Afro-Academic Cultural Technological Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) Committee; she is a member of the following committees: Criminal Justice Committee, Legal Committee; Environmental and Climate Justice Committee; Life Membership Committee; and Advocacy and Policy Committee.

President Bolling-Williams has served as President of the Indiana State Conference since 2003 succeeding her mentor, Rev. Franklin Breckenridge Sr., who served in that capacity for 25 years. Under her leadership, the Indiana State Conference initiated the first State Youth Summit and hosted the first Region III College Retreat. In 2018, the Indiana State Conference received the Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Esquire Award for its activism in protecting voting rights in Indiana. In response to the lead and arsenic soil crisis in East Chicago, Indiana the Indiana State Conference initiated the first Youth Scientist Project.

Ms. Bolling-Williams, a life member of the NAACP, served as president of the Gary Branch from 1998 to 2004 where she reactivated its ACT-SO Program and Youth Council. She has been the Region III Leadership Chair since 2010.

She is a member of First Baptist Church where she is a member of the Bessie Griggs Mission and Recording Secretary of the Alter Guild. She serves on the Board of MWN/MOTTEP (Multicultural Wellness Network-Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program); is treasurer of the James C. Kimbrough Bar Association, and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Attorney Bolling Williams has been blessed with many honors and awards, including the 2016 National State Conference President of the year; two Regional State Conference President of the Year; Indiana State Conference Lauren Henry Award; Soror of the Year, Sigma Phi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; featured alumnus, Valparaiso, 2004; Valparaiso Black Law Student Honoree in 2004; and NAACP/NBA 100th & 103rd National Convention Continuing Legal Education Summit Panelist on voting rights, just to name a few. She is especially proud to have served on the successful legal team that challenged the closing of the early voting sites in 2008 in the Indiana cities of Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago. Further, in 2013, she was one of a four-member team that prevented the closing of the IV-D Court in Gary.

Barbara, an alumnus of Gary's West Side High School, returned to her roots in 1991 to start her own law practice. For two years she was a co-owner of Soft-n-Silky, a retail store that was located in the Village Mall.

The product of a school teacher, Mary Hardaway Bolling, and brick mason, Samuel Bolling, her mother, instilled in her the desire to give of herself to her community. Her sister Carolyn passed in 1995.

For the past 25+ years, Ms. Bolling-Williams has been a solo practitioner with an emphasis on plaintiff's issues. She formerly served as an adjunct professor at Valparaiso University School of Law and a part-staff attorney with the Lake County Office of Family and Children. She is a graduate of GMI Engineering and Management Institute (nka Kettering University) and Valparaiso

University School of Law. She is married to Terence Williams Sr. and together they have five children and three amazing grandchildren: Arionna; Justice; Nyla; and Mikhi.

Having been taught at an early age, "To whom much is given, much is required", Attorney Bolling-Williams uses all of her God-given gifts and talents for the betterment of her community by helping those in need. She has a strong commitment to faith, family, and community. Barbara believes "The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for men and women of good conscience to do, or say, nothing."

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