Kellogg engineer shares secret to success

A supportive neighborhood and parents who valued her education laid the groundwork for a Kellogg Co. engineer’s path to success.

Dorothy Williams, a distribution and logistics engineer for the cereal company, said she never thought what some see as barriers -- the color of her skin, her gender, her parents’ lack of education and financial stability -- would prevent her from doing what she wanted.

“I grew up with so much self-awareness and self-confidence that when I decided to become an engineer, it never occurred to me that I couldn’t be,” Williams said.

Williams, whose sunny disposition spews out of her, grew up in a three-bedroom house in Kansas City, Kan., with 10 brothers and sisters. She said her family was “dirt-poor.”

Her mother, a home nurse who also did domestic work, and her father, a laborer, had not completed high school. It wasn’t until Williams was in high school that her mother earned her GED, and an associate’s degree sometime later. Williams said her father never went back to school.

“Which is in itself amazing because a lot of people think you can’t achieve things,” she said. “You can’t own a home, can’t do this, can’t do that because you didn’t follow the prescribed way of getting there.”

When her father’s job was moved to Minnesota, he moved with it while Williams’ mother stayed in Kansas City to take care of the children. Williams said her father would come home to see them a few times a year.

Williams said her parents couldn’t afford to go to college, but they pushed their children to value education. Williams said her parents bought books, read the newspaper and encouraged critical thinking.

“I remember the day one of my sisters got a C, it was such a ruckus,” Williams said. “I didn’t know what a C was, but I knew I didn’t want to get one.”

Williams, whose last name was Jackson at the time, grew up in what she called the “proverbial African neighborhood.”

Just a few doors down from Williams’ home in the Western Highland neighborhood were black doctors, teachers, janitors and preachers. She said the parents watched over all the children. The community worked together.

While many black women hoped to become nurses and teachers, Williams said, the children in her neighborhood were encouraged to do jobs black people hadn’t been allowed to do.

“It had a tremendous influence because during that era in America blacks were viewed as unintelligent, uneducated,” she said. “Particularly in Kansas and some of the more southern-type areas.”

Norma Champ, one of Williams’ childhood friends, grew up one block over. The pair met in kindergarten and have stayed friends into their adult lives. Champ, who still lives in Kansas City, said the adults in the neighborhood were strict because they wanted the children to become well-rounded and accomplished adults.

“We got to see a variety of things that helped us make the choices in our life,” Champ said.

That same community encouraged Williams, who had wanted to stay close to home in Kansas, to attend Northwestern University.

Her education was expensive and Williams had to work odd jobs to stay enrolled. She found scholarships for her first year, and found a job her second. By her third and fourth years at the university, Williams was working multiple part-time jobs to keep up with tuition payments.

“I was a mailroom person, I waited tables, I was a domestic, I found jobs for matching students who needed tutors, a librarian,” she said. “So many different things.”

She found an engineering internship with Mars Inc. in the summer months and used her earnings to supplement her tuition.

Once she graduated, Williams found an engineering job with a rail station. For the first time, she could afford to live without worry. She rented an apartment in Chicago with a view of the river and could go out for dinner.

In her career, Williams has worked for ConAgra Foods, Kraft Foods Group, Kellogg Co. and started her own consulting business.

Though financially stable and working in corporate America, Williams still knew she was different. She worked with few, if any, women engineers and few, if any, black engineers. Williams said it seems like the number of women and people of color interested in engineering has decreased since she joined the industry.

“That’s the one thing with Dorothy, she definitely has had to break the glass ceiling,” said Tracye Brogden, a former Kraft Foods co-worker. “She’s a trailblazer at being very comfortable in her own skin.”

Brogden, who used to work in human resources, said during talent reviews Williams was always mentioned as a “high-potential employee.” Brogden said Williams was well-liked because she was proactive in her work and was willing to speak up in the office.

They were the same skills Williams passed on to her son, Ryan Williams, who now lives in Chicago with a family of his own. Ryan said his mother taught him that he was able to make his own path in life, no matter what. It was the same philosophy Williams’ parents and community had instilled in her.

“I often tell people that everybody’s parents and everybody’s mom says you can be whatever you want to be, Ryan Williams said. “The difference is with my mom you can be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want to do and here’s how.”

Williams said she wants the same for any child growing up with aspirations to do something out of the ordinary when they grow up. She says they just have to set a goal and stay focused, and most importantly, be yourself.

Call Enquirer reporter Olivia Lewis at 269-966-0663. Follow her on Twitter: @TheWrittenPeace