Debra Williams

Chief of Police/Director of Emergency Management at the Clark Atlanta University Police Department since 2018.  Chief Williams has over 34 years of law enforcement experience beginning her career with the City of Atlanta Police Department (APD) in 1983 until retiring in 2011 as a Major.  While with APD, she  served as one of the first female officers in the REDDOG Unit oversaw the Department's Background and Recruitment Unit's successful effort of hiring a record number of police recruits in a single year. She also served on the project team for the implementation of the citywide video surveillance center, currently known as The Video Integration Center.

She is a graduate of Georgia Association Chief of Police Executive Training and Police Executive Research Forum’s (PERF) Senior Management Institute of Policing and visited Israel and received training on Intervention Strategies for Domestic and Gender-Based Violence in San Salvador. She has received several commendations throughout her career, such as 2009 Manager of the Year for APD, Female Officer of the Year for the State of Georgia and finalist for Female Officer of the Year with the International Association of Women Police. She is also a Georgia State POST Certified Senior Instructor. She is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).