Guy Williams

President and CEO, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice

Guy O. Williams is president and CEO of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, as well as principal and founder of G.O. Williams & Associates, L.L.C., strategic advisors for sustainable community and environmentally related programs.

The recipient of Bucknell University’s 2016 Alumni Association Award for Service to Humanity, Williams was also named 2014 Michigan Green Leader by the Detroit Free Press. He is chair emeritus of the Great Lakes Leadership Academy Board of Governors. Williams serves as director on the Boards of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (Chair 2013–2016) and Pesticide Action Network North America, as well as the Advisory Board for the Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors and the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessment Center.

Podcast Guest Appearances

A Tale of Two Cities: Miami and Detroit

Climate change is upending Miami’s real estate markets, turning one of its poorest neighborhoods into some of the most desirable real estate around. It’s a phenomenon known as “climate gentrification,” a term coined by urban studies professor Jesse Keenan.

In a 2018 paper, Keenan writes that while gentrification is most often driven by supply – that is, a surplus of devalued property that invites development and transformation – climate gentrification is the opposite.