Attorney and entrepreneur, Krystal Williams, is passionate about connection, community, creating positive change, continual learning, and challenging herself.

Selling homemade bread at the local farmer’s market in her home state of North Carolina when she was a young girl, sparked an interest in learning more about business. Growing up in a family of seven in a Habit for Humanity neighborhood, she recognized that education was her path out of poverty. She went on to earn an MBA at The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth after which she was recruited into John Deere’s general management leadership program, working in diverse areas such as supply management, advanced technology marketing, and manufacturing operations. Today she leverages her business expertise in her work with Black Owned Maine to provide workshops for Black business owners and entrepreneurs to help them scale, increase revenue, and work through operational barriers. Their long-term vision is to develop a business incubator to increase the number of BIPOC entrepreneurs and business owners in Maine, while also creating a consistent pipeline of BIPOC entrepreneurs capable of developing high-growth, bankable businesses that would be attractive to investors and grant providers to increase their funding opportunities.

Krystal “discovered” Maine while on her Appalachian Trail thru-hike, fell in love with what she saw and decided she’d return to Maine to attend Maine Law. She started her legal career at Pierce Atwood and then worked at Bernstein Shur, each time in the environmental law group, until the events of the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd prompted her to go out on her own to focus on the needs of the BIPOC community. She has since started two organizations:

• Providentia Group focuses on creating economic belong by working in two different spheres. For existing and established organizations, Providentia Group partners with organizations to embed equity principles in their organizational business processes through strategic analysis, equity audits and training. For BIPOC “wannapreneurs” or new entrepreneurs, Providentia Group provides strategic advice, executive and business coaching, and tactical legal support to assist entrepreneurs establish and grow their businesses.
• Alpha Legal Foundation has a mission to increase the diversity in Maine’s legal profession by providing community and strengths-based support to aspiring or new attorneys. The Foundation also engages the community by bringing together members of the legal profession, legislators, policy makers, and community advocates to develop a deeper understanding of and create multi-faceted solutions for systemic problems.

Walt Whitman’s words seem to describe Krystal, “I am large, I contain multitudes”. With her eye on community, she serves as chair of the board of directors of Kinotek, a Portland-based digital health startup. She also serves on the board of the Lerner Foundation and the ACLU of Maine, serving as the latter’s Equity Officer. She is a board advisor with the Maine Women’s Lobby and Women in Sports Tech. She also serves on the governance committee for Maine Public. She was a Peace Corps volunteer working in the Dominican Republic building gravity flow water systems and latrines.

This super positive mother of three likes to keep busy, help solve problems in her community, and continue to learn. To augment her passion and acumen for community building, counseling, and education, she returned to school earning a master’s degree in Development Policy and Practice at University of New Hampshire and then a second master’s degree in Social Work from the University of New England. She currently works as a Maine Department of Education Family Engagement and Cultural Responsiveness Specialist. She is especially proud of the work her team is doing around bringing the experiences and considerations for people of color to Maine educators. She serves on the Somali Community Center of Maine and is a board member of Northern Light Mercy Hospital. She is also on the boards of I’m Your Neighbor Books, Emerge Maine. She is co-founder of Cross-Cultural Community Services. She is past board president of the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and former board member of the Maine Women’s Fund.

In 2018, members of her community encouraged Deqa to run in a special election for South Portland’s District 5 City Council seat. With the help of Emerge Maine, an organization that trains Democratic women how to run for public office, she won the election by a wide margin. Her voting organizer experience helped drive a high turnout. She made local history as the first African-American and first Muslim to be elected to the South Portland City Council. She was re-elected in 2020. Her focus has been on human rights, access to quality education, affordable housing, and a clean and safe environment. Two areas of great impact in which she was involved

• the establishment of the South Portland Human Rights Commission, which will work with marginalized groups, including black, indigenous and people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and low-income families, “in order to build community, provide education and training, celebrate diversity and inclusion, increase community engagement, and review policies and provide policy recommendations to the city council and the city manager.”
• a committee to assess the extent of the problem with the petroleum tanks in South Portland and work with the state to design an air monitoring program

The family tradition for serving the community continues. All three of her children attended Seeds of Peace Camp which strives to provide youth with the skills and relationships to work in solidarity across lines of difference to create more just and inclusive societies. Her youngest daughter has served on the student council in middle and high school and was named NAACP King fellow in 8th grade.