ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Debra Wheat-Williams incorporated the Squad Williams Foundation in 2023 because of her desire to continue the work that she was doing through the Cedarmore Corporation for the past twenty-five plus years. Her record of accomplishments is undeniable and as CEO of the Squad Williams Foundation, she will put all her energy into implementing programs that will help to uplift youth and impact positive social change in communities across the county.
EMPLOYMENT: For almost 40 years Debra Wheat-Williams was employed by New York City Tourism + Conventions, formally known as NYC & Company, the tourism marketing agency for New York City. She retired in 2020 as the Director of Financial Services where she wrote, distributed, and managed their grant program, as well as worked on selected convention planning committees. The most notable committee was the 100th Anniversary of the NAACP convention in 2009, where the keynote speaker at the Spingarn Dinner was the newly elected President Barack Obama. Committee members collaborated directly with the mayor’s office, the NAACP Board Chair, Roslyn Brock, and their President, Benjamin Jealous.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: For more than 25 years, Mrs. Wheat-Williams was a volunteer and later appointed to the Board of the Cedarmore Corporation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. She is the Founder and was the Program Director of the Cedarmore Farmers’ Market, an entrepreneurial program modeled after the youth market program of GrowNYC. She created the “Seed to Table” Community Garden program to serve as an outdoor learning laboratory for elementary, secondary, and high school students giving them firsthand training in agriculture and business. This program provided the Farmers Market with organic grown produce at a reasonable price. At launch, this was the only community garden in New York State considered a farm by the New York State Department of Agriculture under the Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). This Community Garden was the recipient of the “Getting It Done” Award from Sustainable Long Island, which recognizes agencies that utilize innovative sustainable practices addressing environmental challenges within their communities. She also developed and implemented the first youth-staffed Mobile Market Program for seniors in Nassau County, bringing the market to low-income senior housing complexes -- providing access to those who are less mobile and physically unable to get to a farmers’ market location. The was the first of its kind in Nassau County.
In addition, Mrs. Wheat-Williams was the Associate Director of Cedarmore’s award-winning Young Entrepreneurs Training Program (YETP), teaching youth financial literacy through the filter of entrepreneurialism. YETP won first place for three consecutive years at the University of Delaware’s Hospitality Business Plan competition, the only three years they entered.
Mrs. Wheat-Williams was also on the inaugural committee of Girlz Talk. Held at Hofstra University, Girlz Talk is an event designed to focus on the critical issues facing girls from diverse communities across Long Island. These workshops engaged girls in timely, culturally relevant conversations. The first keynote speaker at Girlz Talk was the esteemed Multimedia Personality and Hot 97 Vice President and Music Director, TT Torrez. Other notable keynotes were Angela Yee (The Breakfast Club), Brandi Harvey (The Steve Harvey & Marjorie Harvey Foundation) and Tekoa Hash (Glam Coordinator, Love & Hip Hop).
In 2018, Laura Curran, Nassau County’s County Executive appointed Debra Wheat-Williams to the Nassau County Minority Affairs Council where she currently serves as the council’s secretary and sits on the Education and Economic Development Committees.
Currently, Mrs. Wheat-Williams sits on the committee for the #GoGetHer Music and Multimedia Summit, held at Lehman College in 2024. Under the leadership of acclaimed media executive TT Torrez, this inaugural event aimed to inspire, educate, and equip young Black and Brown women from under-resourced communities with the necessary skills, connections, and confidence to excel in the fields of music, media, and other related industries. Squad Williams Foundation was a proud sponsor of this event that brought together over 300 young women from across New York City.
EDUCATION:
- Master’s degree in history from Long Island University at CW Post where she won the History Prize for her thesis, “The Restoration of Charles Hamilton Houston: The Unknown Visionary Who Destroyed Jim Crow Laws and Triggered the Modern Civil Rights Movement.”
- Bachelor’s Degree majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a minor in Business Management from Hofstra University
AWARDS:
- Awarded the Paul Harris Fellow by the Freeport Merrick ROTARY Club in 2021
- Named “Hometown Hero” in 2020, by the Long Island Herald Newspaper
- Received the Town of Hempstead’s 2018 Rosa Parks Award
- Received the 2017 Community Service Award Presented by Freeport High School’s Black Educators
- Received the Long Island Youth Foundation’s Legacy of Service Award
- Received the “Outstanding Community Service Award” from the Darby Foundation in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz.
- Received Zion Cathedral’s 2016 “Faithful Service Award”
