OneUnited Chief Operating Officer and President Teri Williams has been named to the prestigious Forbes 50 Over 50 list of women in the financial field. Through OneUnited, Williams has financed almost $1 billion in loans for people in low- to moderate-income communities, including in Roxbury, Los Angeles South Central and Compton neighborhoods and Liberty City in Miami.
In communities served by OneUnited, Williams has instituted financial literacy programs such as Smart Money Summer School, which holds financial literacy workshops for adults in OneUnited Bank branches, including Roxbury and Grove Hall. She launched the OneUnited Mural Project — a public art works, youth development, community beautification program providing arts enrichment through STEAM education and “Yes! In Our Backyard” — a 12-month community-based initiative project to which OneUnited Bank committed $1 million to help change the lives of residents living in OneUnited Bank’s Miami branch “backyard” community and help build long term, generational wealth through homeownership; and the annual “I Got Bank” Financial Literacy Youth Essay Contest.
The contest was named for “I Got Bank,” the children’s book Williams authored to help inspire young people to learn financial literacy.
Williams began her journey as a bank owner in 1995, when she purchased her first bank with her partner Kevin Cohee. They have since then purchased three more banks serving predominantly Black communities and merged them with OneUnited.
