Karen Pierce Williams on Moving Through Being Out and Open, Hidden in Their Professional Life, to Now Being an Advocate for the LGBTQ+ Community
Karen Pierce Williams (she/her/they/them) speaks about having the opportunity and environment to be able to be out at work and how organizations need to catch up with the energy and representation in the media.
Karen is from Richmond, Virginia and has lived her whole life there. She works in Virginia as the Director, Quality & Strategic Projects at ChemTreat, an industrial water treatment company that is part of the Danaher group. A loyal employee with over 28 years there, their commitment to both the community at work and wider society is evident. “I grew up in Richmond city proper, predominantly a Black neighbourhood steeped in community. It was during an era where you could go down a block and be looked out for by your neighbour.” Karen really loved her upbringing and being part of that tight-knit community. It was also during a historical moment when schools were being desegregated. “Virginia was one of the states where segregation was on its last legs. When I went to kindergarten in 1971, schools were being desegregated. The state waged a massive resistance against the school being integrated.”
That desegregation impacted Karen massively, who remembers being bused from their community across the city to this new intimidating environment. “We went twenty to thirty minutes away from home. We arrived at a predominantly White school that was really scary and not inclusive at all.” Her entire family saw her onto the bus, which she thought was strange at the time, and reflecting back with the gift of hindsight, she realises it was an enormous moment for them; putting trust in others that their children would be okay. “As I said, it was frightening, and it was really only down to a few wonderful teachers that things were okay. They wholly embraced me and made me feel as though I belonged”. Karen maintains that great teachers can shape children enormously as they helped through this extremely stressful time for her as a child. “One of my teachers, Mr Rogers, told me to always look for the helpers, and that’s such a solid piece of advice.” In a beautiful full circle moment, her daughter now attends a school in the area and Karen can return here and reminisce about her childhood with her.
While Karen was out at high school, coming out was not a one-off event or a specific conversation for Karen. “I identify as the L from LGBTQ and coming out for me has really been a continuum. I came out very early, the confidence and love from my close-knit family meant I felt I could do that right away. My friends also really embraced me. I never questioned it; I just was who I was”. As all Karen had ever been asked or expected to be was herself, she never questioned being out and had a girlfriend in high school. “Although my girlfriend and I might not have held hands in the school hallways, it was still very well known”. Her Mum was really protective knowing how hard a place the world can be at times and showed her love and support from the get-go.
Once Karen graduated college and started to think more seriously about her career, that is when things shifted a little. In the world of work, they became a lot more aware of people being treated as an ‘other’. “That’s when I was more self-conscious and realised more and more about otherness. You might get questions by default about whether you have a husband. My eyes were opened, and I saw first-hand an environment that wasn’t inclusive. As a result, I thought ‘this is an environment where I need to keep my sexuality to myself in case it limits my career growth’. You read the room and think maybe it isn’t safe to be fully me here.” From always being out at home, Karen then changed her approach and maintained a don’t ask, don’t tell approach to her career for a very long time.
When Danaher acquired Chemtreat it was their global presence and inclusive nature which really helped things to change. “Danaher led with a very inclusive environment and set that tone and gave me the courage to be okay being who I am at work”. Now she mentions her wife at work and is fully herself, she describes this evolution as allowing herself to be present as a leader and far more engaged and innovative. Being free to be your whole self means the organisation benefits from her being able to leave duality at the door. “As a senior leader this has increased my emotional intelligence as a leader, and I want those that report to me also have inclusivity in their mind. It has made me more aware of different cultures, dynamics, and people. So, this works both ways, I’m more aware of my team’s needs. For example, whether you are an introvert or an extrovert and being at peace with that and celebrating that is powerful.”
Karen started out in research and development, with a chemistry degree, and they worked as a formulation chemist. While working there, they worked to complete her mBA online and transferred into the technology side of the business. For her, working as a product manager in tech services, rolling out a new product offering and stretching herself in that role, has been a real highlight of her career. Then they went to product management marking for a few years and finally went back to their roots in research and development. She manages a larger team now and has worked across the business, “One of the good things here is you aren’t limited by your interest or ambitions, you can look into other aspects of the business and can grow and expand as much as you want”.
From being someone who has moved through being out and open, hidden in their professional life, to now being an advocate for their community at work, Karen now feels like a strong productive leader. She is a workstream lead for the LGBTQ+ Associate Resource Group at Danaher where she has always addressed intersectionality and wants absolutely everyone to have a space to step up and speak out. They believe even more can be done to encourage awareness at work.
“It’s important that we have those tough conversations. I would love to see organisations in a corporate environment catch up with inclusive marketing strategies. We see so many more adverts, films and tv shows that represent inclusivity and show the world as it really exists, with interracial couples and same-sex couples for example. So, for me corporations need to catch up with that energy, they need to build leaders with higher emotional intelligence and just normalise difference across the board.”
