URBAN LEAGUE Ex-Clinton official to speak

She served as the first lady's chief of staff and as an assistant to the president.
BOARDMAN -- Maggie Williams, the former chief of staff to Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be the keynote speaker at the Youngstown Area Urban League's annual dinner and awards banquet April 7.
Williams was chosen as a speaker to go along with the League's "opportunity agenda." The theme of the banquet, scheduled for Mr. Anthony's Banquet Center, and Williams' appearance is "African-American Empowerment in Conservative America."
Williams served from 1993 to 1997 as the first lady's chief of staff and as an assistant to President Clinton. In addition to being the first black woman to advise the first lady, Williams also was the first person to ever have the two titles concurrently.
Williams, a native of Kansas City, Mo., has a long history of political involvement. After graduating from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., in 1977, she went to work with the late Arizona congressman Morris K. Udall on Capitol Hill.
Williams went on to serve as the deputy communications director at the Democratic National Committee from 1979-1981. She then became the press secretary for the first congressional campaign of Senator Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J.
In Washington, Williams has served as associate media director for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. She also led an advertising campaign on teen pregnancy prevention for the Children's Defense Fund, where she served as the director of communications from 1985-1990.
Tapped by Clinton: In her 30s, Williams decided to obtain her master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. Her plan was to continue with the program to earn her Ph.D., until an old friend named Hillary Rodham Clinton asked Williams to head up her husband's presidential campaign.
Williams began her presidential duties by heading up Mrs. Clinton's transition into the White House. After that, Mrs. Clinton asked her to become her chief of staff and to serve as an assistant to the president. Williams held these positions until 1997, when she traveled to Europe to advise clients such as Scholastic Publishing and the National Black Women's Health Project.
In September 2000, after a two-year search, Fenton Communications named Williams as its new president. Jet magazine, a nationally known black affairs publication, said that this latest position makes Williams the highest-ranked black woman in a top 50 public relations agency.
The dinner and awards banquet is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Tickets are $35 each and can be purchased by calling (330) 744-4111.