In the Cut Leadership Conversation with Ada Williams Prince

Ada speaking at the Hatch Signature Summit in Paradise Valley, Montana in October 2021

A creative leader at the cutting edge of global and domestic philanthropy, Ada is a well-known connector of people and ideas for impact. She has successfully designed and informed programmatic, policy and funding decisions and for 2 decades has advanced the power and influence of women and girls of color. Ada is among the dynamic leaders who are growing a community of funders committed to transformation in philanthropy.

Ada, welcome to In the Cut! You got to the idea of identity ahead of most of us, and I say that because of the work you do uplifting people of color, and specifically women and girls. So, let’s start with how you identify.

I identify as a Black woman. I identify as a mother. I identify as a person who seeks justice and the transformation of systems that don’t serve people who look like me. I also identify as someone who has never met a stranger. I identify as an only child. A Sagittarius. A fire sign. I identify as a lover of nature, people and the planet.

Sheila: And just in that little bit of time I’ve already learned something new about you. That’s a part of being In the Cut.

As the person who seeks justice with a shield and cape, describe the work you do. 

I seek to uncover the unseen and amplify the voices of those who are unheard. I help those without power, gain power, because globally we are in a system that doesn’t recognize that none of where we are now was built for us.

The work I do is living in between the gaps. The areas where the most impact can happen. And that is the gap between what is and what isn’t supposed to be true for those who are the most invisible.

Sheila: At some point I said I would write my findings from my first few In the Cut Leadership Conversations. It has been affirming and heartwarming to hear people, like you, talk about the privilege we hold in different ways and our responsibility to helping those who are in the gap. And that’s what leadership is.

“Both my life and career have always been about the bridge between worlds.”

How has that shown up for you in the past? How have you done that?

Both my life and career have always been about the bridge between worlds. I think it’s because I’m an only child. For me, that bridge between worlds has always been the place where I was bridging between the kids my age and the adults.

I grew up in a family who didn’t understand the meaning or the word philanthropy. We didn’t call it that. It was just our community – we did for our community. So, growing up like that on a block in Los Angeles with a majority of single moms, we all did for each other. I didn’t differentiate between acts of service and generosity and what it meant to be in philanthropy. I think that gap meant I was doing acts of service for my community and that’s what I did no matter what.

As I got older, that gap meant that as I went through high school and college. I understood that there was a gap between what people were telling me I could do and what I knew I was capable of doing. That gap showed up for me when I was in college and decided to study the migration and movement of people. I’ve always been drawn to migration, forced migration and forced displacement. Because of my own ancestral ties to forced displacement in the sense of historical enslavement of my people, I’ve always been drawn to that so my undergraduate studies were of refugees and the movement of people and displacement.

In studying that I was asked, “what are you doing, working on other worlds and other countries when you have problems at home?”

As somebody who is a rebel, growing up in LA, where everyone learned or spoke Spanish. What am I doing? I’m learning French because that’s just how I roll! I also went to the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. It is an experiential learning school where I lived off-campus for my senior year and worked in a refugee camp. I found the things that were the most that I could be doing that was different, and did those things. For a Black girl from LA to live in Nepal and work in a refugee camp was something they said I couldn’t do.  So, of course, that’s what I did.

The community was very poor, and the refugee community was coming in, and the gap was how do you reconcile the resources. It was an emergency in an under-developed place. And the question was, “what can you do?” This was many years ago. We learned, and now we know that you don’t allow the refugee community, and the community who have struggled living there, to compete for resources. You treat them the same. You provide all resources - economic, health, including reproductive health - to all of them

It’s the exact same issue we have in this country when we talk about immigrants and what jobs they will have and how they compete for scarce resources. It’s not about competition. It’s about abundance. I learned that very early on and years later applied it to my work as a policy director for OneAmerica in the immigration space. I helped set up a gender program within the immigration work that OneAmerica was doing at the federal, state and local levels. My team and I wrote a report documenting the Human Rights abuses along the Canadian border in Whatcom County.

I think that in all the ways, I’ve stood in the gap between what are the intersectional, cross-sectional layers that exist where we are not seeing where people are the most vulnerable and have the most power. Where people are equally powerful, which we don’t see.

For example, the least amount of power I have as a Black woman is down to systems. Not because I am not inherently powerful. Anytime you amplify that, you find that this person is actually tremendously more powerful than you give them credit for. They have way more ideas and vision than you ever thought and have generated the most amazing inventions that we have here in the United States and in other countries. And they were passed over.

I love the movie Hidden Figures because it actually brings this point home. Nobody would have gotten anywhere if it wasn’t for those women, at that time, bringing us the most brilliant ideas. So that’s why I’m really interested in this. Not because of our lack, but because of our inherent value and asset. If we could focus on that, the impact would be a hundred-fold.

Ada conducting a workshp at Panarama Global’s Offsite Staff Retreat in Seattle, Washington.

What was it then that made you know you are a gap filler? What made you know that you could be one to fill the gap, and ultimately close the gap? This goes way back. This isn’t, like, what happened yesterday. This goes back to high school. What did you know about you? Or, did you know?

Well, that’s the thing, I don’t think I knew. I looked around and there was nobody there with me. I think that I grew in that space out of underestimation. I grew in that space because people always underestimated me. They always thought that I was not smart. I was told that I was not smart. I was told that I would never make it out of high school. I was told that I would never make it out of college. I’d never get a graduate degree.

So, the career that I’ve had, and the positions that I’ve held as a leader, I look back and say, how did I do that? But then I also think, wait a minute, I did that because I believed enough in myself from being underestimated. It wasn’t like I needed to prove that to anyone. It was more about knowing I have more inside me to give.

When you think about my serious need for justice, that is what was driving me forward. And then I ended up with a job where I had a lot of power. And power is necessary in order for change to happen. And it can also be a corruptible thing in that it can change you if you’re not careful. A lot of people don’t know how to handle power when they have it. There are times when you are not wielding power and sharing it in the right way where you can become just as corruptible as the next person.

I always make sure that I’m being checked by my community and by being reflective of who I am and where I came from. I remind myself of my privilege in being in this place. Toni Morrison is the one who I believe said, “if you get to this place of privilege, your responsibility is to bring somebody with you.” That’s not a direct quote because I know she said it better than that! But I honestly believe my accountability lies with making sure that, not only am I doing for others and bringing them with me, but that I’m also not so foolish to think that I can’t be knocked of that particular pedestal at any moment, at any time.

Sheila: I recently had Archita Fritz In the Cut with me and she shared a story about being a leader in 5th grade and wasn’t good at it. People called her out on it. Then in 10th grade she put her hat in the ring and she tried it differently. And then in 12th grade her community named her as the leader of her entire school. She was fortunate as some of us don’t have the benefit of the opportunity of failing.

And she learned it so young. And the opposite is true that you can be in power and want to be liked so much that you give away your power too much and you can’t reclaim it. I’ve also learned from that.

When was your first known leadership moment and what sticks out about it for you?

I’ve had a lot of leadership in my life having spent 20 years of my career working in humanitarian aid, conflict and disasters. But the moment I accepted it was during a time when I was working in India during the Indian Ocean tsunami and I was the manager of a team. In India there is a colonial hierarchical system.

At this particular point, so many people had died and it was no longer an emergency but a recovery. During this process, I had to coordinate a lot of local and international agencies, all trying to work together. I realized that no one was going to organize them. They were all working independently.

We had a meeting and no one was facilitating the meeting. I literally stood up and went to the white board and started pulling it together by naming who was going where and defining what they were going to do. Of course, there was resistance, but I walked them through a process in a 90-minute meeting and scheduled the follow-up meeting for the next week. This wasn’t my job but someone had to do it!

My boss was in the field and had gotten sick and I continued in my process for several weeks. During one of the meetings that happened in our office, there was a small fire with smoke entering the building. I paused the meeting and guided people outside to continue the meeting. This was when I accepted the notion that I might be a leader! It was in chaos where I found acceptance.

You hold this space of intersectionality, not the least of which is having never met a stranger, transforming systems and being a justice crusader. How does all of this inform how you lead?

Love and compassion inform my leadership a lot. The deep need for fairness and justice as well. Which means that really hard decisions about staff reductions, or financial issues, or shutting down for COVID, requires that I always think about what the layers of the decision are.

I’m not only going to think about the financial piece. I’m not only going to think about the organization. I’m always going to think about the people and the impact decisions will have on everything. I’m also a leader who likes to listen and consult others.

I think my identity informs my leadership in the sense that I’m not the kind of leader to bang my fist on the table and say, “I know what the answer is.” Or move ahead in that direction because I know what’s right.

Sheila: Because you listen, are compassionate and see people, you could go way down the road on that and never solve.

Right. Well, what I’ve learned is that you can listen all day but you do have to make a decision and move forward and be okay with not being liked. That was a hard lesson to learn. At the end of the day, my experience being on several nonprofit boards where we had to execute hard decisions; and also, being on a senior leadership team helped me see a lot of different sides of this. The piece about compassion is making sure – you know, I’ve had to fire people before - that they understand as much of the “why” as they can. And know that I’m sending you off with love. You may not see it now and you may never see it.

Sheila: I remember the first time I had to fire somebody. It was in my own company and I was nervous. It was hard.

Is there a leadership moment that sticks out for you that was either a really good one, or really hard one, and what did you learn from it?

Oh, my gosh, there are so many of them like thinking about letting somebody go. There was one instance  where my boss guided me through the decision-making process, helping me understand how to approach letting someone go. After our discussion, I ultimately took responsibility for making the final decision.

It was hard when I did it and I was really emotional. I realized I should not be the one getting emotional in that situation. I learned that while it's okay to have emotions about difficult situations, expressing those emotions isn't appropriate during the moment when someone has to be let go.

The other thing I learned is who your friends are. In a leadership position, you can’t always be friends with people you supervise. That’s a hard lesson, too. I learned that in philanthropy as well. When you’re on the philanthropy side, you cannot always be best friends with those whom who you are granting funding. I learned that being best friends is different from having good relationships. Having good relationships is vital to good work and outcomes.

The power dynamic is what I learned the most about in leadership. There is always an inherent power dynamic that challenges how I might want to approach the relationship. I wish there were no power dynamic, but there is, and I had to accept that. There wasn’t much room for me to walk away from the situation; I had to take responsibility for managing that power dynamic.

What has surprised you most about leadership?

The impact I have on people. I am always surprised when people say, “you said something and I remember it. It was 10 years ago and it really impacted me and I took it to heart. Now, I do this.” That always surprises me. You never know how people will interpret something you say, or, what they will take away from what you say.

I try to make sure I create a safe space for people. And then when it is, they share that they do that on their team and I’m always surprised.

Sheila: I read a quote that I won’t remember exactly but it was about people realizing how much of other’s  lives they hold in their hands when they lead. If you recognize that someone’s livelihood, the income that makes their family whole, the health of that person and their ability to live a healthy life is in your hands, you’d reduce the stress on people. You’d be kinder in your leadership. You can still get it done but you don’t have to get it done by being a bully. If you just recognize that you hold someone’s life. Even their thoughts about what they can do next career-wise. It’s a whole thing.

“What I offer is the belief in change.”

What is your leadership superpower. What’s on your cape?

My ability to inspire and motivate people to do the thing and walk with me. And it’s my ability to find joy in the work.

Sheila: Let’s go to the inspiration and motivation part. What is it about you that makes that so?

I show my real, authentic self and how passionate I am about the work I do. Simon Sinek says that the best movement leaders talk about their “why” not the “what”. Because I show people my true self – here I am and this is why I care about this work – it creates an environment of vulnerability that encourages others to join in and share my passion. They can feel confident that my direction aligns with where they want to go.

When you show someone that you’re passionate about a change or transformation of a system, if you’re telling them that you are so committed to this other world and that they can play a part in changing, they will walk with you to be a part in doing that. What I offer is the belief in change.

Sheila: You hit the word that I was going to illuminate and that’s commitment; and also, consistency. From the day I met you to this day, and I’m sure beyond, you have been consistent about what your passion is. You have been very clear about that and your commitment to the gap which makes you not only well-versed in how to get it done, but brings with it a level of clarity about the “why”. I’m glad you got to commitment, and I’m tossing in consistency, as a way you have built credibility, inspiration and admiration.

Thank you! I don’t have a typical pathway toward being the CEO of something. What I have is a ball of string, weaved together across many experiences with a consistent thread. I worked in refugee camps, focusing on women, girls and families who were displaced in some of the most forgotten places on earth. It was the commitment to little girls of color. Before that I worked on a children’s science show – Bill Nye, the Science Guy – which was about how you keep girls, and young people of color interested in science. The thread there is that if girls drop out of science, then those little Black girls who came up to me at the National Teacher’s Science Convention sharing how much they loved Bill Nye, would not now be working at NASA. It’s how I see the future.

When I worked at Pivotal Ventures, we did a volunteer day at the International Rescue Committee’s Garden, I met 2 people whose parents I knew in the Nepal refugee camp where I worked in the 1990s! These families had resettled in America.

I worked for the Marguerite Casey Foundation as a Program Officer across all of California. One of the people I worked with is Nwamaka Agbo, who is the CEO of the Kataly Foundation and is now engaging in the most dynamic and exciting work around economies.

I have spent the past 8 years being able to build organizations that are led by women of color. There’s Aleyamma Mathew, who is the head of the Collective Futures Fund, and has now become a global leader and received $20M for the work they do.

Nothing that I’ve done has been linear. I move with a collaborative leadership approach that by design brings people together. Standing in that gap and moving things forward as a collective movement. I have had the good fortune of helping put people into positions to lead themselves and their movements forward. That to me is good leadership.

When you’ve done the really hard things, some of which you’ve described, what do you do to get ready for it?

Part of me was born ready! And, I always do Wonder Women power poses. They have done tests that prove this is a good way to psych yourself up. And I often watch Black Panther!

The other thing is that I call friends, like you, who speak love into me and empower me.

And if I’m really down, I call my Mother.

What do you know your life’s purpose to be?

To serve and to love.

What talent do you have that you’re not using?

That’s a good one!

I’m not using all of me.

What talent do you wish you had?

Deeper focus.

If this 5 years is a chapter of your life, what is it about?

Hormones and what to do with them! Teenagers and menopause at the same time aka barriers to freedom!

It’s a year from now, what are you celebrating?

Another year of good health. Joy and gratitude for my family and friends. I want to have a mindful and reflective year. Full of rest and my kids are doing great.

“I found the things that were the most that I could be doing that was different, and did those things.”

Is there anything about you and leadership that I have not asked that you’d like to share?

Yes, leadership itself is not static. We are always learning something new about ourselves. Good leaders are always reflecting and adapting to it in real-time. The best leaders are always authentically adapting to it and not hiding from mistakes.

Sheila: Well, you made it to the end. Sitting In the Cut!

I just want to say thank you for including me. I so appreciate your leadership and I’ve learned so much about leadership from you. You’ve been my mentor, my Chief Wakanda Officer and a General Okoye in my life. I thank you so much for including me!

Sheila: You are chosen and you are welcome. And I’ll take General Okoye anytime! Thank you.

Please drop a comment to Ada below!