Adrenace “Shae” Williams serves as the Mississippi Field Office Director with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In this role, Shae is responsible for strategic leadership, planning, decision making, and resource management to achieve HUD’s goal and ensure the local office is aligned with the Departmental Strategic Plan and related standards. Shae assures that HUD resources are accurately and efficiently targeted to meet community goals and needs. Shae also plays an integral role in supporting interagency and collaborative projects, operations, and policies for disaster recovery and reconstruction, place-based investments and services, and interagency sustainability activities.
Before moving to this position, Shae served as a Housing Program Specialist with HUD, providing technical advice, guidance and policy interpretation on HUD Housing Counseling Programs. Shae oversaw a portfolio of agencies with multi-million dollars in grant expenditures and played an integral role in grant development and the preparation and development of policy changes to improve the quality and availability of housing counseling programs for low to moderate income families.
Prior to HUD, Shae served as the Executive Director of a Mississippi based, HUD-Approved Local Housing Counseling Agency that served the people of Mississippi in the areas of Housing, Education and Economic Development. Under her leadership, the Mississippi based agency provided homeownership education and individual counseling to more than 1,000 households annually, offering financial strategies and assistance that helped low to moderate income households become and remain successful homeowners. Shae was also responsible for providing resources and support to numerous faith-based and community development-affiliated organizations across the state of Mississippi. In addition, Shae served as the Director of Community and Business Development, where she oversaw community‐based housing programs statewide. She collaborated with stakeholders to educate and advocate for tax credit programs, employer-sponsored housing programs, down payment assistance, and a variety of other programs and services. She also worked with the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA), where she trained and managed volunteer tax preparers who provided free tax preparation services to more than 100 families each year. Shae has a strong background in process improvement, Lean/Six Sigma, and change management, which enabled her to reorganize her previous organization to eliminate organizational waste and change the operational culture, focusing on serving both external and internal clients, saving significant funding and increasing revenue by 500%.
Shae earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from California State University and a Master of Science degree in Health Psychology from Capella University. She is the founder and CEO of The Institute for the Advancement of Minorities in STEAAM, Inc., and also serves as the board secretary and treasurer for To Improve Mississippi Economics, Inc. Shae is a current member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a lifetime member of Psi Chi, National Honor Society in Psychology, Past President Emeritus of the National Environmental Justice Academy Alumni Association, and a former appointee of the governor to the Mississippi Commission on the Status of Women where she served in the positions of Treasurer and Board Chair. Shae is a 2022 graduate of HUD’s Management Development Program and a current board member for HUD’s Veterans Affinity Group (VAG). Shae is also a member of the Federally Employed Women (FEW), the African American Federal Executive Association (AAFEA), current president of the MS Federal Executive Association (FEA), and the National Congress of Black Women (NCBW) Board of Directors Recording Secretary and local chair of the Metro-Jackson Chapter of NCBW. She is a former United States Marine and a strong advocate for veterans and the underserved.
