A community champion

On the afternoon of May 16, a tornado ripped through 20 miles of the St. Louis region, causing widespread destruction in some of the city’s most disinvested areas — including the historic Ville neighborhood.

Aaron Williams, BS ’08, was working that day at an information center recently opened for the nonprofit organization to share updates with the community about the organization’s commercial corridor planning work. While the Harlem Tap Room, a historic bar and restaurant across the street, was destroyed, Williams’ info center and a newly painted Tina Turner mural were untouched. In the aftermath of the storm, he knew just what to do.

“We immediately turned the information center into an emergency response hub with our partners,” Williams says. “It felt divinely manifested, that we were in the path of devastation but our facilities remained fully functional. Our standard operations took a pause for a month, and we were able to help with immediate needs while also advising the city on how to build more permanent solutions.” 

Williams is president and co-founder of 4TheVille, a cultural heritage development organization that works to protect and grow the historically Black neighborhood in North St. Louis without forcing out the already present community.

“We are dedicated to championing the legacy of The Ville,” Williams says. “The idea is to build upon that legacy through collaborative growth, activation and stewardship, so that all community members of The Ville can have access or can be afforded a vibrant future. We want to be facilitators of future development, growth and transformation, while also being a protector of the legacy and community voice.”

Building community is important to Williams. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and attended Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, which was founded in the 1860s as the area’s first school for Black students. “I grew up in a working-class home with my mother,” Williams says. “I was the oldest of three boys, always a high achiever. I was a high achiever, people in my life, adults in my life, protected me, protected my possibilities, and wanted to see me do the best I could.”

Williams attended WashU tuition-free thanks to the John B. Ervin Scholarship, and he vowed to use the time he had at college to its full potential. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, along with minors in Spanish and African & African American studies, both in Arts & Sciences.

I often took classes outside of my major,” Williams says. “I was determined to get the most holistic education I could. That meant studying business, real estate and engineering at Olin Business School and at the McKelvey School of Engineering, not typical of an architecture student. I was never just a design student that focused on architecture.”

While at WashU, Williams was as involved with his community as he is now. He founded Field Day through Campus Y and was awarded the Touissant L’Ouverture Award for undergraduate community service.

“If you really want to move the needle, you have to know who’s who and the way things are trending, and you can only do that by being civically engaged.”

Aaron Williams

Alongside his work at 4TheVille, Williams is a senior project manager at Penn Services, a construction contractor. While his schedule is demanding, he makes both jobs work.

“I definitely think I work two full-time jobs,” Williams says. “I make it happen because both matter to me equally. There is tension, something I don’t always enjoy. But one sustains my quality of life and my family’s quality of life. I have two sons and a wife, and providing for them is important. But just as important to me is using tools like design thinking, cultural heritage tourism and smart land use to protect the dignity of historic Black communities.”

Williams continues to serve in an advisory capacity to the city’s Office of Recovery in the wake of last spring’s tornado. He also volunteers with the Urban Land Institute, The City of St. Louis Planning Commission, Sumner High School and more. At WashU, he partners with the Gephardt Institute and recently welcomed Katie Plum, AB ’25, to the 4TheVille organization. Plum graduated with a degree in architecture last spring.

“Aaron is so hard-working,” Plum says. “The Sam Fox School is unique in that it offers connections to different community organizations for community-engaged design. He is a ‘people-first’ person and sees that there’s more than just architecture as a solution to a neighborhood’s problems.”

For Williams, civic engagement is necessary not just for moral reasons, but also as a way to get critical work done. 

“If you really want to move the needle, you have to know who’s who and the way things are trending, and you can only do that by being civically engaged,” Williams says. “I believe WashU has a responsibility to be civically engaged and to make its talent available to assist with pressing challenges and opportunities in our region.”