Maxine Williams’ journey to where she is today as Vice President, Head of Accessibility and Engagement at Meta (formerly Facebook), is nothing short of extraordinary.
Her path towards trailblazer status began in Woodbrook. Williams attended St Joseph’s Convent in Port of Spain, then Yale University. She later migrated to Haiti, where she lived and worked as a teacher, helping to shape young minds. As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, she earned her law degree with first-class honours. She then led the Caribbean Human Rights Network. Williams had a thriving and successful career as an attorney in T&T when she left it behind to become a struggling actress in New York.
“My colleagues thought I was crazy, leaving everything I had behind. But there were just so many other things I wanted to do,” she said.
In 2013, she accepted one of the biggest roles of her life—not in a film, but at Facebook—where she became the first person responsible for overseeing Diversity. After a long tenure in that space, she transitioned to VP of Accessibility and Engagement at the organisation.
Most of her career has revolved around people, inclusion and justice. That’s why she chose to teach at a high school in Haiti, and why, to this day, she champions the marginalised—including those who are differently abled.
Her drive for inclusion and justice is what motivated her to collaborate with The Cotton Tree Foundation—a non-profit that believes in improving life chances through education—and Eshe’s Learning Centre, which is offering a partial scholarship for children with learning disabilities.
Williams and The Cotton Tree Foundation are currently working on a programme to support children in schools who are identified as “problematic” or “difficult to teach”. These children will be assessed by trained psychologists and provided with psychoeducational reports that offer both a diagnosis and a learning plan for parents and teachers. If followed, this plan can help the child reach a better place and live up to their potential.
Williams is also collaborating with Eshe’s Learning Centre, a school for children with learning disabilities. The school is launching a partial scholarship to help parents cover tuition costs. To apply, parents must obtain a psychoeducational report—either privately, through a non-profit organisation, or via government resources such as the Student Support Division at the Ministry of Education. The deadline to apply for Eshe’s partial scholarship is 7 July.
Over the course of her career, Williams has met with presidents and prime ministers, the wealthiest and most successful individuals. What she has observed is that everyone has experienced exclusion and marginalisation in some form. While some had the means to be diagnosed and successfully manage their learning disabilities, others fell through the cracks.
This has broader implications. In some cases, it manifests in the high proportion of people in prison with very low education levels and literacy challenges. As a lawyer, Williams had clients who felt they had no other option but to live a life of crime.
“We’re trying to get to a place where everybody is included,” said Williams. “When we look at our society—and you hear that maybe a quarter of our population is being left behind—what does that mean for our productivity as a nation? If you’re not productive, you could end up being destructive. If we don’t invest in people now, we risk prosecuting them later, and living in a society full of fear rather than fellowship.”
Learning and a good education are the building blocks to living the best version of ourselves. However, the education system we have is not designed for people who learn differently, said forensic psychologist and programme coordinator at The Cotton Tree Foundation, Chelcie Rollock.
There are different types of learning disabilities. The most common among children in T&T are ADHD, anxiety, and auditory processing disorders, which affect their ability to take note of what the teacher is saying aloud. This can create the impression that the child is “harden”, lazy, or misbehaving. That, in turn, places a false perception on the child, leading them to feel insecure, inferior, and in some cases, experience self-loathing. This may cause students to fall through the cracks and miss out on the education they need to sit formal examinations, Rollock explained.
The Cotton Tree Foundation provides holistic assessments that consider emotional, physical and behavioural factors, and how these impact a child’s ability to learn and function academically.
“Once we have a better, holistic, person-centred understanding, we can then provide recommendations to help them learn at their own pace. This might mean extra time to complete tests, a separate room with fewer distractions, or—especially for those with severe dyslexia—having someone read exam questions aloud. We need to set people up for success in our education system, so they can function to the best of their ability in the world we live in today,” said Rollock.
Williams is urging citizens to adopt a different mindset towards those living on the margins. Instead of assuming a child “won’t amount to anything good”, she encourages people to investigate what is getting in the way of their learning and put measures in place to help guide them towards the right path.
“Not all disabilities are visible. Learning disabilities are invisible to the eye. There are children who are labelled ‘dunce’ or ‘bad’; they are neglected, and no investment is made in their education or potential. They end up doing something else—which can be destructive to society and themselves. If one in four people has a learning disability—that’s a lot. And if we’re not investing in them, then we must accept the consequences. We’ll live in a society where we fear, neglect and stereotype people who are simply struggling to survive.”
Williams reminds parents who suspect something is impeding their child’s learning to get a psychoeducational assessment—either through a non-profit organisation, the Student Support Services Division of the Ministry of Education, or privately. To apply for Eshe’s partial scholarship, visit www.eshelearningcenter.com. The deadline is 7 July.
To contribute to the scholarship fund, call 622-7206 or 622-8177. Those wishing to support the Service Learning Programme at The Cotton Tree Foundation can visit https://thecottontree.org/donation or call 217-4426.
“Things happen in a big way because each of us does things in a small way—and they add up,” said Williams. “It is a pleasure and honour to work with people who are willing to give in the interest of building the beautiful, bountiful country and community I know we have. We just need to invest in it to help it live up to its potential. But The Cotton Tree Foundation is just one organisation, and Eshe is just one school. We need to do more.”