Our Web
Shanda Williams ~ Advisor & Collaborator
Shanda (she/her) is a small business visionary, creator, and owner of SD Communications and Marketing Consulting Group LLC. She is one of the Assistant Directors of CROs (Community Resilience Organizations). Her innovative business venture offers social justice programs, small business consulting, networking events, event facilitation and creation, and talent promotion to conscious-minded businesses, organizations, and artists in Vermont and beyond.
Shanda is committed to increasing equity opportunities toward BIPOC homeownership while helping people heal their financial trauma. Shanda produces financial liberation programs and is the creator of the Money Matters: Financial Liberation and Wellness series, for which she was awarded “2023 Innovator of the Year” by the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation. She is also active with An Economy of Our Own as a collaborator and program presenter.
As a changemaker, reparations activist, equity strategist, and BIPOC community advocate, Shanda facilitates and co-organizes the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Color) groups for The Everything Space’s My Grandmother’s Hands Study Groups. She is a teaching assistant for The Everything Space’s Growing Resilience: Being Trauma Informed course. Shanda curates BIPOC affinity spaces throughout Vermont and is the founder of the Central Vermont BIPOC Advisory Group.
Shanda is active in both the Vermont Professionals of Color Network and the Vermont ReLeaf Collective, serves on the Hunger Mountain Coop JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) Committee and the Center for Crime Victim Services Advisory Council.
Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, Shanda came to Vermont in 2017, bringing with her over 15 years of experience in the banking and insurance industry. Her background in financial services and relating to people from diverse cultures and social-economic backgrounds brings highly transferable skills and perspective to her current endeavors.
Shanda studied communication science at the University of Connecticut and is a courageous experiential learner through her willingness to both advocate for justice and to heal from historical, intergenerational, persistent institutional, and personal trauma. Her combined career expertise and her personal journey of financial and racial healing is the inspiration behind her passion and dedication to healing and social justice as both a practicing manifester and small business consultant.
Shanda loves animals and connecting with people from all walks of life. She enjoys Sun and Moon gazing as well as pet sitting. A community singer and actress, Shanda loves singing gospel, funk, and jazz. Shanda also performs with the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir and Lost Nation Theater.
A natural networker and web weaver, she prioritizes bringing people together through the power of love, song, word, and healing.
“Through my faith in possibility and love for humanity, I aim to build bridges for people to embrace change through the power of healing racialized trauma, one person at a time. Through my journey healing from racialized trauma and white supremacy culture, I have become more confident and conscious of how to construct my own empowering narrative and collaborate with others working towards transformative justice.“
~ Shanda Williams
