Richard L. Williams is Publisher and Chairman of HBCU Matters magazine (www.hbcumattersmagazine.com) and Publisher and Executive Editor of Black Business Ink magazine (www.BlackBusinessInk.com), which he founded in 2020 and 2003, respectively. He is a founding partner of BBM Marketing+PR and founder and convener of the State of Black North Carolina Conference (www.StateofBlackNC.com). Richard has worked at newspapers in North Carolina, New York and Washington, D.C., and as a corporate executive at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. He is a founding member of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) African American Chamber of Commerce; has been honored by the N.Y. Chapter of NABJ and the NNPA, the latter of which was accompanied by a congratulatory letter from President Bill Clinton. He led fundraising efforts to establish the Salem Lodge/Robert A. Miller Endowed Scholarship Fund for students attending HBCUs. He is a former adjunct professor at Winston-Salem State University. He is a long-term chairman of the Carolina Christian College Board of Directors and a member of the Creative Corridors Coalitions Board of Directors. He is a former three-term chairman of the Winston-Salem Urban League Board of Directors, former three-term chairman of the Winston-Salem Masonic Order Board of Directors, former two-term chairman of the AARP African-American Advisory Board, former two-term chairman of the Carolina Donor Services Minority Outreach Task Force, and former three-term chairman of the Forsyth Tech Mazie Woodruff Campus advisory board.He is a former member of the Bookmarks Board of Directors and the WSSU Small Business & Technology Development Center Board of Advisors. He is a 33rd Degree Prince Hall Mason and a member of Omega Psi Phi National Fraternity, Inc. He earned his undergraduate degree from N.C. A&T State University, an MBA from Wake Forest University and an Executive Education Certification from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.