Mary Alice Williams is the retired President and CEO of Arbor Circle, a Grand Rapids-based behavioral health and human services organization which she helped found through the merger of four non-for-profit organizations. She won election to the Grand Rapids City Commission as a write-in candidate, and has managed a number of successful local political campaigns for progressive candidates.

Williams has been recognized for her extensive commitment to community service and advocacy for women and children as the recipient of the National Family Week Advocacy Award, the Athena Award, The Non-profit Excellence Award, the YWCA Tribute Award for Advocacy and by induction into the Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society of the GVSU School of Public and Non-Profit Management.

Mary Alice currently serves on the Nokomis Foundation Board, Co-chairs the Candidate Committee of the Progressive Women's Alliance and serves on its Board, Chairs the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) School of Public and Non-profit Management Advisory Board and sits on the Grand Rapids Civil Service Commission. She is a founding board member of both the Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council and Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women.

Her professional work includes service as the President of the Advisory Center for Teens, Director of the Aquinas College Women's Center and Executive Director of the Eastown Community Association. She received her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Public Service Degree (D.P.S.) from Aquinas College for life-time community activism.

A native of Providence, Rhode Island, Williams has resided in the Eastown neighborhood of Grand Rapids since 1974 with her husband, Michael, a retired Professor. There they raised two daughters, one a Grand Rapids Public Schools Montessori teacher, the other a veterinarian. She is the proud Nana of two grandsons who bring joy to her life and already know how to put up yard signs and walk a precinct.

Mary Alice was appointed to the Michigan Women's Commission in 2007