Speaker Profile

As AARP’s Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Edna Kane Williams has the responsibility for driving AARP’s enterprise diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy encompassing our workplace and marketplace. She leads strategies for multicultural audiences and age discrimination and oversees the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Advisory Council and AARP’s Employee Resource Groups. Before this appointment, she served as Senior Vice President of Multicultural Marketing at AARP. 

 

Ms. Kane Williams brings over 25 years of experience to AARP working in senior management positions in both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. She previously served as Senior Vice President at IQ Solutions, Inc. and Senior Vice President at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. 

 

Kane Williams holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.A from George Washington University. She was a Coro Foundation Fellow and a Diversity Executive Leadership Program fellow for the American Society of Association Executives. Kane Williams is currently on the advisory board for the forthcoming Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, the Board of Trustees for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company, and the Legal Counsel for the Elderly. She previously served as a board member of the Black Women’s Health Imperative and The Center for Responsible Lending. 

 

Kane Williams has received numerous career awards, including: Diversity Woman Media’s 2025 Inclusion Innovation Leadership Summit & Awards’ Inclusion Innovation Impact Award, ColorComm’s Circle Award in 2023, Savoy Magazine’s 2023 list of the Most Influential Executives in Diversity & Inclusion, Diversity Woman Magazine’s 2022 Elite 100, Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in the Business in 2017, National Coalition of Black Civic Participation’s Spirit of Democracy Award, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters’ National Marketers Award, and the Conference of National Black Churches’ Dorothy Height Humanitarian Award.