The Honorable Sonya Medina Williams serves as an Independent Director and member of both the Compensation Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee at Papa John’s International (Nasdaq: PZZA), where she has served since 2015. She is a board of director for the NBA San Antonio Spurs Give, The Texas Tribune, and Teach for Uganda, and serves on the advisory council of the Nasdaq/Diligent Next Gen Board Leaders
In the boardroom, Medina Williams is a proven leader of transformation, value creation, and innovation. During her time as a director, she has dealt with industry disruption, reputational brand risk management, global crises communications, mergers and acquisitions, activist investor transactions, complex financial structuring, CEO & CFO transitions, corporate headquarter relocation, international policy, global health crisis, and successful corporate global re-branding, business turnaround.
A passionate expert in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), social impact and sustainability, Medina Williams has an extensive background in transforming and leading organizations in establishing a robust cultural brand and healthy corporate culture where long-term value creation and successful business continuity are possible.
Medina Williams began her career at the White House where she was the first to report directly to both the President and First Lady in her dual role as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Director of Projects for the First Lady. She later served as the Director of the AT&T Global Foundation. Leading the global foundation and overseeing a $120M budget, Medina Williams highlighted the importance of social impact and helped establish AT&T as a global trailblazer in the arena of CSR. She later served as executive Vice President of Community & External Affairs for Silver Eagle Distributors, the nation’s largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products.
An international thought leader on the inclusion and advancement of women and minorities and an expert in social innovation and coalition building, Medina Williams founded the Latina Leadership Institute and travels globally to speak about women’s leadership, corporate culture, diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) and corporate governance. Most recently, Medina Williams was recognized for her efforts within the boardroom by being featured under the “Directors to Watch” in the 2021 Directors & Boards publication, 2022 Directors to Watch: Racial and Ethnic Diversity.
She is a graduate of Texas A&M University and received a Master of Public Health from The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.