[1] While a graduate student, Williams published Contemporary African American Female Playwrights: An Annotated Bibliography in 1999,[2][3] reviewed in Feminist Collections as "a service to theatrical producers and play enthusiasts alike" by locating more than sixty African American female writers with works published between 1959 and 1997—a group given minimal space in anthologies and other compilations.
[4][5] In Modern Drama, Kathy A. Perkins noted that the work's focus on African American women playwrights was the first contribution of its kind and said, "Not since the publication of Bernard Peterson's Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays (1988) has there been such a valuable resource in this field.
"[5] After completing her PhD, Williams was a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University in 1999.
[7] In 2008, she had a faculty fellowship at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University.
[8] She was also tapped to serve on the National Council on the Humanities, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2016.