Updated: May 2019

Linda Williams

Community Outreach & Training Manager

Linda Williams joined the Consumer Action Los Angeles Office Outreach and Training Team in September 2006. As Community Outreach & Training Manager, she aggressively pursues the team’s mission to ensure that all individuals, regardless of their income level, are able to learn about their rights as consumers. She has carried out this mission by networking, coalition building, and training case managers, counselors, social workers, educators, librarians, and front-line advocates who serve low-income and hard-to-reach consumers from coast to coast in the fundamentals of financial literacy .

Williams’ passion for training and her belief that all consumers should know their rights and how to assert those rights in the marketplace has led her to conduct trainer workshops at numerous national, state, and local events including the NAACP Financial Empowerment Tour in Cincinnati, OH, NABVETS National Conference in Seattle, WA, California WIC Annual Conference in Sacramento, National Coalition of Homeless Veterans Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., National Day of Honor for World War II Veterans In Philadelphia, PA; Blacks In Government National Conference in Maryland; Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, DC; and Georgia Cares Senior Summit in Peachtree, GA. Well versed in the education and training modules created by Consumer Action, Williams has trained over 75 Los Angeles County social workers on how to prevent and protect themselves and others from identify theft, trained over 1000 Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC Program employees on money management and staying fiscally healthy in a tough economy, and trained the staff of the Center on Deafness in Riverside, California, on credit card fraud and identity theft.

Prior to her position with Consumer Action, Williams was a front-line advocate with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA). For 16 years, she provided direct service to individual consumers, worked one-on-one with community-based organizations, and helped form coalitions to protect the rights of low-income and hard-to-reach consumers in Los Angeles County. During her tenure at LAFLA, Williams established herself as an assertive advocate for consumers’ rights. 

While working full time at LAFLA and raising five children, Williams, a single mother, entered law school. As a Certified Law Clerk, she argued three tenant rights cases in Los Angeles Superior Court—and won all three. Williams also created the Public Housing Outreach Project, which focused on helping public housing residents remove the barriers to employment, higher education, and poverty.

Through the coalitions she helped formed, she successfully secured a reasonable accommodation policy change from the City Housing Authority for disabled Section 8 applicants. She testified before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles City Council and has been quoted numerous times by the Los Angeles Times regarding subsidized housing issues.

Williams, a single grandmother, holds a Juris Doctor degree, and Bachelor of Science Degree in Management and Organizational Behavior.  She is a member of ATD—the Association for Talent Development (formerly ASTD) and its local Los Angeles Chapter. She actively participates in ATD continuing education classes for the professional development of trainers. Williams is also a CERTIFIED True Colors Facilitator.