Her sister, Ntozake Shange, was a playwright best known for writing the Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

[1] She received as Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College, where she graduated in 1976 cum laude with honors distinctions in Black Literature of the Americas.

[5] Prior to being assigned to Niamey, Bisa Williams, then U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, participated in a September 2009 six-day trip to Cuba in an attempt to improve bilateral relations.

During the trip she met with Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera, worked on restoring direct mail service between the two countries, and toured parts of western Cuba hit by Hurricane Ike.

Williams is currently Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.