HOME  |  ABOUT US  |  GIVING OPPORTUNITIES  |  CONTACT US  |  SLI RESOURCES

MISSION | MINISTRIES | HISTORY | BOARD OF TRUSTEES | TOM SKINNER | BARBARA WILLIAMS-SKINNER

Barbara Williams-Skinner

Printable version

CONTACT US
Skinner Leadership Institute
P.O. Box 190
Tracy's Landing, MD
20779
301.261.9800 office
301.261.5193 fax

bws@skinnerleadership.org

Copyright 2005. Skinner Leadership Institute

Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, Co-Founder and President, The Skinner Leadership Institute, and Author

Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner is president of Skinner Leadership Institute (SLI), formed to produce a new generation of leaders who are technically excellent and spiritually mature.  A nationally recognized spiritual leader, teacher, lecturer and writer, she earned her undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University, and the M.S.W. and law degrees from UCLA.  She has also earned the M.Div. and D.Min. degrees from Howard University School of Divinity.  She is the author of numerous articles including “The Power of Love,”  “Been There, Done That: Why African American Christians Resist Racial Reconciliation,” and a leadership training workbook entitled “Becoming An Effective 21^st Century Leader.”

 Dr. Williams-Skinner and her late husband, the Rev. Tom Skinner, a former Harlem, New York gang leader, founded the Skinner Leadership Institute in 1992.  The Institute evolved from Tom Skinner Associates, the ministry founded in 1964 by Tom Skinner, who became chaplain to the Washington Redskins football and New York Yankees baseball teams, and authored numerous books. Skinner Leadership Institute provides leadership development and reconciliation training for people of all backgrounds and faiths, especially to current leaders, students, emerging young leaders and urban youth.    

For many years, Dr. Williams-Skinner was the Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, DC, made up of the African American members of the U. S. Congress who collectively represent 39 million African Americans. In 1981, she and her late husband founded the Congressional Black Caucus Prayer Breakfast, annually attracting over 3,000 religious and civic leaders from across the nation.  She has served on the boards of numerous organizations including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Volunteers of America, National Political Congress of Black Women, Operation Rainbow PUSH, Christian Community Development Association, and Evangelicals for Social Action. She is currently on the boards of Christian Community Development Association, Fuller Theological Seminary, and the Community Empowerment Equity Partnership (CEEP).  CEEP, founded as a tribute to Tom Skinner, operated an Urban Leadership Academy at Ballou Senior High School in Washington , DC for five years.  The Academy offered courses in moral character development, job readiness, and computer technology training, and she provides curriculum and teacher training for the Academy.

Currently, Dr. Williams-Skinner serves as National Director for Ecumenical and Legislative Outreach for a new Broadway-caliber Civil Rights musical, “If This Hat Could Talk: A Musical of Passion, Power, and Triumph.  The musical chronicles the untold stories of women during the Civil Rights Movement, like Dr. Dorothy Height, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and Mrs. Rosa Parks, and the men with whom they partnered, like A. Phillip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr., to bring about numerous civil and human rights victories. Over 10,000 school children have seen and been impacted by this great musical through the musical’s Youth for Excellence Iniative.

Dr. Williams-Skinner has two adult daughters by marriage---Mrs. Lauren Skinner Gaines and Mrs. Kyla Skinner Manning.  She lives in Southern Maryland, and simply wants to be known as a woman of God who appears as a woman of the world.