Ester Williams

Instructional Leader

Dr. Esther Williams began serving Defined Learning in March 2021, she serves as a content specialist and provides professional learning opportunities. Her first introduction to Defined STEM was as a fine arts facilitator tasked with finding a teacher friendly platform that integrates the arts through the project based learning experience. The ease and value the platform provided spurred her desire to be a part of the team that provided resources like this to teachers in all subject areas. With her background in fine arts and technology, Defined Learning was an amazing combination of the two where she was able to see her own beliefs materialize. She was able to see that experiential learning, as defined by John Dewey and later solidified by David Kolb, fosters a much deeper sense of understanding that lasts because students are learning by doing, and what they are learning can be applied in real life. 

After receiving her B.A. in Fine Arts, she received her M.Ed. in Instructional Technology, then went on to earn her Ed.D. in Educational leadership. Dr. Williams has served in many capacities throughout her years in education. She started off as an art teacher for 7 years before taking a principal position for a preK to 8th grade campus for 4 years. After a major relocation to the great state of Texas, Dr. Williams went back into the classroom as an art teacher for 6th - 8th grade for a year and a half. She was then recruited to serve in the district’s grant department as the fine arts facilitator for a magnet school grant program where she stayed for 3 ½ years. She then moved into the administrative office and served directly under the superintendent as his senior project manager. With senior project management experience in hand, Dr. Williams took a leap of faith and transitioned out of the education world and began working in the City Manager’s Office in the same city her district was in. With such a diverse pallet of experience, Dr. Williams is able to connect real world examples to the learning material developed in Defined Learning. She is continually researching partnership opportunities for educators and organizations that she can share with educators, to better bring these experiences to life for the students.

All work and no play is not a concept Dr. Williams is familiar with. She enjoys sports and anything competitive and finds many ways to challenge her husband and three children ages 11, 12, and 14 years old.