Meet Councilmember Felicia Williams
Making it Count
Felicia Williams is a finance expert with over two decades of experience working with some of America’s top financial firms and Fortune 500 companies, managing and forecasting multibillion dollar projects, investing in our energy grid, and using her financial experience every day to help local governments secure critically needed financing to deliver essential services. She knows how budgets work and how to address the problems we are facing, from improving access to housing, modernizing our transportation infrastructure, and creating good paying jobs.
Today, Felicia is the Vice Mayor of Pasadena, President of the Burbank Airport Commission, and works as a financial consultant to cities. Prior to her election to the Pasadena City Council, Felicia served as Chair of the Planning Commission, and on the Boards of Planned Parenthood Pasadena & San Gabriel Valley, the Pasadena Educational Foundation, and the Pasadena Police Foundation.
A Calling for Public Service
During college, Felicia suffered a devastating illness that put her in a coma. Surviving with a new lease on life and having witnessed the shortcomings of the healthcare system firsthand, Felicia decided to dedicate her life to public service. This commitment was reinvigorated when, just a few months after moving to New York, she witnessed the September 11 terrorist attacks and worked with the Red Cross to help families and feed first responders at Ground Zero. After New York, Felicia returned to Southern California, working as a financial advisor to cities improving essential government services and building projects that provide good jobs in the region.
Homegrown
Born and raised in Pasadena to an immigrant mother from the Philippines and an African American father, Felicia worked with her mom at her real estate business where she learned the value of hard work and giving back to her community. Her father, one of the first African American Pharmacists licensed in California, taught her the importance of education. Felicia attended Polytechnic School and went on to attend Stanford University and UCLA, where she earned an M.A. in Urban Planning. She earned an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School, specializing in finance and real estate.
