Michael L. Williams

Williams was a federal prosecutor from 1984 to 1988 and a former assistant district attorney in his hometown of Midland, Texas. He also served as Special Assistant to Attorney General Richard Thornburgh at the United States Department of Justice from January 1988 to June 1989. In 1988, former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese awarded Williams the Attorney General's "Special Achievement Award" for the conviction of six Ku Klux Klan members on federal weapons charges.

Williams served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement at the United States Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he had oversight responsibility for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (August 1989 – June 1990). In 1990, U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush appointed Williams to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights (the Office for Civil Rights) at the United States Department of Education,[5] a post previously held by Clarence Thomas. Williams has also served as general counsel to Wilkins Group, Inc., a telecommunications company based in Richardson, Texas.[8]

Williams is the first African-American to hold a statewide elected executive office in Texas history. Williams was appointed to the Texas Railroad Commission, a regulatory body that oversees the oil and natural gas industries, by then-Governor George W. Bush in 1999; he and won elections in 2000, 2002, and 2008 to retain the office before eventually resigning in 2011. He is also the fourth African American to be elected to statewide office overall, following Morris Overstreet, Wallace B. Jefferson, and Dale Wainwright. Williams chaired the Texas Railroad Commission from September 1999 to September 2003, and again from June 2007 to February 2009. Williams also chaired the Governor's Clean Coal Technology Council, and represented the governor and the Railroad Commission of Texas on the Southern States Energy Board. On September 14, 2005, Texas Governor Rick Perry designated Williams to lead the state's long-term Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Williams was also the Railroad Commission's "point person" for agency regulatory reform and technology modernization efforts.

Williams was appointed Texas Education Commissioner on August 27, 2012 by then Governor Rick Perry;[4] he became the first African-American Commissioner of Education in Texas history.[9] On October 15, 2015, Williams announced that he would step down as Education Commissioner at the end of the year to return to the private sector. The 200-mile one-way commute from his home in Arlington to the state capital in Austin had become too taxing to remain in the position, Williams said. Perry's successor, Governor Greg Abbott, named Mike Morath as Williams' successor in the position.[5]

Williams is a 1971 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Midland. He is the son of public school teachers. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He also obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the USC Law School in Los Angeles. He is married to Donna Williams, who resides in Arlington, Texas. He is a brother of the University of Texas chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Williams is a past Honorary State Chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Texas, which helps to enrich, encourage, and empower children through safe, positive, one-to-one mentoring relationships. He also has served in a volunteer capacity as the general counsel of the Republican Party of Texas, the chairman of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and on the board of directors of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School.