Sheree Williams is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit, The Global Food and Drink Initiative (GFDI), based in Oakland, California. Since 2009, Sheree has published the first Black global digital and print culinary lifestyle publication, Cuisine Noir Magazine, that connects the African diaspora through food, drink and travel. Through her leadership, the magazine has pioneered and influenced important conversations about Black chefs, tastemakers, winemakers, travel influencers and more.
In July 2022, she launched Diaspora Food Stories, the first multilingual Black food podcast to host conversations in English as well as other languages spoken by people of African descent with a mission to preserve all food stories in the language in which people first connected with food.
Sheree is a 2022 and 2023 judge for the annual James Beard Awards, a trend-spotter for the Specialty Food Association, 2020 Women of the Vine & Spirits Fuel Your Dream scholarship recipient and 2019 Dine Diaspora Black Women in Food honoree and member of the Bay Area Travel Writers.
To add to it all, she is also a published photographer and an approved contributing photographer for Getty/iStock and Shutterstock.
Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Sheree received her bachelor of science degree in advertising from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master of science degree in integrated marketing communications with a concentration in public relations from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. She also holds a Level 1 Award in Wine from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, a certificate in diversity and inclusion from E-Cornell and a hospitality and tourism certificate from Florida Atlanta University.
When she is not leading a global organization and publication, you can find the Illinois native trying new recipes, exploring her Bay Area backyard or the world, sipping on her favorite glass of bubbles or relaxing by the water.
Connect
IG: @cuisinenoirmagazine, @global_food_and_drink_int and @vshereewilliams
FB: @cuisinenoirmag and @globalforgood
T: @cuisinenoirmag
LinkedIn: @vshereewilliams
One Response
Here mai — welcome to the gang.