Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams

Acting Chief Probation Officer Ronald Corbett recently appointed Michelle Williams to chief probation officer of Boston Municipal Court-Charlestown Division.

Williams was sworn in by Judge Lawrence McCormick and Acting Commissioner Corbett on April 1 at the historic Charlestown Courthouse where Justice George Lewis Ruffin sat. Ruffin, the first African American municipal court judge appointed in Massachusetts, presided from 1883 until his death in 1886.

“I was delighted to appoint Ms. Williams to the vitally important position of chief probation officer,” Corbett said. “The competence and commitment she brings to her position is reflective of the breadth and depth of talent that exists in the Massachusetts Probation Service.”

Prior to her appointment as BMC-Charlestown chief, Williams served as an assistant chief probation officer at BMC-Roxbury. Hired as a probation officer at BMC-West Roxbury in 1997, she is the first Haitian-born chief probation officer in the Massachusetts Probation Service.

Williams earned an undergraduate degree in sociology, black studies and pre-law at Boston College in 1992 and her master’s degree in criminal justice leadership policy and family violence from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

  “It is a huge honor,” Williams said of her appointment. “I am achieving the career goal I set as well as making my mother proud.”