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Experience, Passion, and Leadership
 When Dr. Helen C. Williams began her work at Pathways in 1997 as Educational Director she came with impressive credentials and years of experience. The real value of her background and abilities became apparent almost immediately as she steered the Pathways Schools Improvement Process, adeptly guiding our staff to assess our educational and therapeutic programs and devise sound and creative strategies to move the school forward. This has been Dr. Williams' goal and vision ever since.
When she took leadership as Pathways Executive Director and CEO in 2007, she put it this way: "The challenge for educators is not only to assimilate knowledge that is changing daily, but to develop methods to teach it to our students while giving them the skills they need to succeed in today's fast-paced, instantly and globally connected world."
Dr. Williams saw to it that Pathways met that challenge and exceeded it. Her passion for enabling our students to succeed and encouraging our staff to meet every obstacle head-on is legendary. Her stories of frogs churning cream to butter, her multitude of wide-ranging anecdotes, and her trademark country-style humor buoyed the positive attitude of many Pathways staff and students.
Dr. Williams' vision and encouragement resulted in substantive changes and growth for Pathways that have had long-lasting positive impact. Under her leadership as Executive Director:
- The Young Entrepreneurship Program, the innovative hands-on program which teaches students about self-starting their careers, took root and grew.
- Inspired by the success of the in-school credit union at Edgewood, the Transit Employees Federal Credit Union (TEFCU) opened an in-school branch at Crossland Re-Entry, creating a venue for training in banking and financial literacy. The TEFCU in-school branch expanded to become a significant location for banking and education for the entire Crossland High School community.
- To provide a middle-to-high school continuum so that students could transition successfully in an academic environment tailored to their needs, Pathways opened and developed a new educational and therapeutic program, Northwood-at-Hyattsville.
- To showcase the talent of our students and celebrate the commitment and vitality of our partners in the community who have helped our students learn and express their creativity, Pathways initiated the Student Art Show.
- The Prince George's County-Pathways Kindergarten Partnership began and grew. This collaborative effort sends Pathways staff into kindergarten classrooms throughout the county to work with teachers, parents, administrators and the children to enable them to succeed within the least restrictive environment.
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