Who? Christina Williams, attorney-at-law, youth activist and the first Jamaican recipient of the Diana Legacy Award

The Diana Legacy Award is the highest award a young person may receive for their humanitarian/social impact globally given in honour of Princess Diana.

Where? Knowledge event hosted by ServiceNow, May 6-8, in Las Vegas

Her back story... “The mix of my education and advocacy platform facilitated by The UWI Toronto Benefit Awards Scholarship has allowed me to gain the Princess Diana Legacy Award, the highest award a young person may receive for social impact, a Community Hero Award, being able to advise various UN Agencies, the European Union and advocate for millions of vulnerable people globally.

It also provided me with the foundation to pursue and become a lawyer almost eight years after I initially got accepted to the law programme.

I received the award in 2024… For the Diana Award 25th Anniversary year for successful policy reforms and programmes on youth development. The award ceremony was held in London and presented by William, The Prince of Wales at the Legacy Award Ceremony.”

Takeaways from the Knowledge event… There is a current urgency to increase the focus on skilling young people and young professionals as in the next 10 years, 1.4 billion young people will need jobs but only 400,000 are estimated to be available.

This ‘Knowledge’ event hosted by ServiceNow is the largest provider of AI services to Fortune500 companies and is one of the Diana Legacy Award partners.

I was invited to speak at a closed event to a group of the event’s top executives about the ecosystem needed for young professionals transitioning in and already in the workforce.

We also discussed fund-raising efforts for the Diana Award Pledge to Invest Initiative; an exclusive opportunity for forward-thinking businesses to make a strategic, measurable, and high-impact investment in the future of youth leadership.

On What’s Next

I am continuing to advocate for meaningful empowerment for young professionals and youth. I was just a keynote speaker at the President of the World Bank Flagship event on the Jobs Agenda at the World Bank IMF Spring Meetings, and was announced this week as a member of the world’s first Public Private Youth Partnership Global Leadership Council, a consortium of ministers, CEOs and youth hosted by UNICEF.

It is my desire to work more closely with relevant local government and private sector stakeholders to localise more of my international impact and am open to partnerships at
ms.csswilliams@outlook.com

CEO of the Diana Award Dr Tessy Ojo (left) chaired a recent conversation with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (second left), two young Diana Legacy Award recipients — Sikander “Sonny” Khan (centre), from Michigan, USA, and Christina Williams from Jamaica, alongside ServiceNow President of Global Customer Operations Paul Fipps.

Christina Williams and William, The Prince of Wales

Christina Williams receives the Diana Legacy Award from William, Prince of Wales in London.

Prince Harry and CEO of the Diana Award Dr Tessy Ojo (right) engage 2024 Legacy Award recipients Chiara Riyanti Hutapea Zhang (left) and Christina Williams.

Attorney-at-law Christina Williams interacts with Prince Harry at a Legacy Award Activity.

Legacy Award recipients Sikander “Sonny” Khan and Christina Williams Damion I Hamilton via https://diana-award.org.uk/