Latest news with #AndreaWilliams
1News
29-05-2025
- Business
- 1News
Almost $365,000 misappropriated by one person at Dunedin school
A Dunedin high school has revealed close to $365,000 was misappropriated by one person over five years. Logan Park High School emailed parents on Thursday "in the interests of transparency" after an external accountant first discovered the missing funds last year. It happened between 2019 and 2024. The school's board of trustees said it was an isolated incident involving one individual and a thorough review had been conducted. "It's important to note that this matter has now been fully resolved, and we want to share the outcome with our whānau to reassure you that, moving forward, our systems and processes are robust," the board said. ADVERTISEMENT The misappropriated funds had been full recovered along with legal and accounting costs, but the board said it had to wait until after the investigation and audit were completed before disclosing what happened to ensure due process was followed. The audit process had recently been signed off and the total amount of $364,884 (GST inclusive) was published in the 2023 full Annual Report. The board acknowledged the news might come as a surprise, but said the Office of the Auditor-General has been consulted and the financial risk to the school as a result of this issue had been eliminated. "After uncovering the issue, we identified necessary improvements and changes to our processes, which were implemented immediately in 2024 to strengthen our internal policies and ensure that this won't happen again," the board said. "This includes third-party professional support." The board thanked its staff for their willingness to assist, saying their cooperation had been invaluable in helping it to resolve the matter and strengthen the school's financial safeguards. "We have fully cooperated with the audit process throughout and remain committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity in our school's financial management," the board said. ADVERTISEMENT "The school has remained in a stable and secure financial position throughout this period." The Ministry of Education's Acting Hautū Te Tai Runga, Andrea Williams, said the ministry was aware of the matter and would be working with the school to better understand the processes they followed. Police would not confirm if they were involved.
CBS News
14-03-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
Andrea Williams says UIC having a woman as director of athletics is a big deal to student athletes
In the world of sports leadership, one would be hard pressed find a résumé more impressive than Andrea Williams. Williams has had quite the career in sports, but she is now working for the first time at a school — as the new Director of Athletics at the University of Illinois Chicago. As she put it, she gets to be a bit of a homer for a change — and she is certainly excited for this new challenge. Williams is settling into her new role at UIC with big goals in mind. "We want to strive to be excellent," said Williams, "so that means whether it's our student athletes in the classroom, if it's on the court, we want to win championships. We want to be able to hoist trophies." Williams was named the UIC Flames' new director of athletics in November. A former Division I volleyball and basketball player at Texas A&M, she understands what it means to be a student athlete and how she can be a role model. "I even have had some conversations with our student athletes here, especially our female athletes, and it's a big deal. It's a big deal for them to be able to walk these halls and say: 'Wow, we've got a woman as our athletics director! Wow, we've got a woman of color in this position!' because representation does matter," she said. "If you want to be at the highest level in whatever craft that you have, it's possible — and what's great is you can get there from here." Williams got to UIC by forging an impressive, trailblazing path that included working for the Big Ten Conference — where as associate commissioner in 2011, she was in charge of the inaugural Big Ten Football Championship Game. "When you're talking about a historic conference that was established in 1892, and this is the first ever football championship game, and you had a woman running a male-dominated sport," Williams said. "That was a big deal." Williams has also worked with the Utah Jazz, the NCAA, the College Football Playoff, and the Big Sky Conference — where in 2016, she became the first African American woman to serve as a conference commissioner at the Division I level. "One thing that actually really saddens me about that appointment is the fact that I should not have been the first, right?" said Williams. "Like in 2016, all the incredible African American women that came before me that had wonderful success, experience, background, education, that should have been first. You know, I wish I was like the 100th. But that just wasn't the case, and so I recognize it, I wear it as a badge of honor, but I also know that it comes with a great, you know, line of responsibility as well." Now, Williams' responsibility is leading the athletics program at UIC — a job that comes with its own challenges in the ever-changing college landscape of conference realignment, revenue sharing, and of course, students being able to profit from their name, image, and likeness. "That's going to be a challenge, especially for smaller schools that perhaps have smaller budgets, and we just have to figure out like how to be creative — again, if that's a space that we opt to be a part of, we have to find new ways to be able to operate," Williams said, "and I think that's what the whole point is in your question in terms of the changing landscape is you have to evolve, you have to be fluid, and you have to be able to pivot — and I think that we have the right leadership here to that, the right coaches, and the student athletes to be able to move the needle at UIC." It seems that they have the right athletic director for that mission as well.
USA Today
29-01-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
‘Hungry people … is a policy choice': What Food For All Oregonians bill could do to help
Oregon Food Bank President Andrea Williams told a coalition gathered Monday at the Oregon Capitol hunger in the state is at its worst since the Great Depression as a bill aimed at combating food insecurity was introduced. Senate Bill 611, known as Food For All Oregonians, looks to address food insecurity in youth, elderly and immigrant communities. It also seeks to provide "nutritional assistance" to Oregonians under 26 or over 55 and those who would qualify for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program but don't because of their immigration status. "It's going to take policy change to end hunger for good," Williams told the Food for All Oregonians Coalition gathered at the Capitol during her State of Hunger Address. State Sen. Wlnsvey Campos, D-Portland and chief sponsor of the bill, said she is confident the bill is 'scalable.' A similar bill that died in the Joint Ways and Means Committee in 2023 didn't mention the program applying to specific ages, while the new one does. "Immigrants have long been a cornerstone of our nation, and I firmly believe they should be treated as such," Campos said. "They're human beings who also should be able to have that food access." Food insecurity in Oregon The Oregon Food Bank saw a 31% increase — 2.5 million people — seeking food assistance throughout their network in 2024 compared to the previous year. Williams said their meals are not enough to support growing demand and expects this trend to continue if something isn't done. They are also distributing more pounds of food now than during the pandemic, about 110 million pounds annually. "The Oregon Food Bank and our network of regional food banks can and will do everything in our power to feed individuals and families today, but that doesn't mean it's going to end tomorrow," Williams said. "We must address the root causes of hunger." Williams said those root causes are the systems and policies that keep people from having access to food, inflation and stagnant wages. There is also concern about what changes the Trump administration could make to social services. "We saw food insecurity take a little dip, and some need leveling off when the government was providing cash assistance," Williams said. "So we know that it's a policy choice. Poverty is a policy choice. Hungry people in this wealthy nation is a policy choice." What the Food for All Oregonians legislation would do The Oregon Food Bank and the Food for All Oregonians Coalition, which is comprised of more than 160 organizations, want food assistance to extend to immigrants "who play a vital role in Oregon's economy." A study published by the Institution of Taxation and Economic Policy found that undocumented immigrants contributed almost $97 billion in total taxes paid in 2022. In Oregon, their contributions were more than $353 million. Only citizens and certain noncitizens are eligible for SNAP. This does not include foreign students, H-1 visa holders, certain U visa holders and immigrants with temporary protected status. About 62,000 Oregonians are excluded from SNAP due to their immigration status, Williams said. The Oregon Hunger Task Force is recommending legislation to create a state-funded food assistance program that eliminates the immigration-based exclusion in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Six states have a special program that makes noncitizens eligible for SNAP assistance: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota and Washington, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "Decades of research shows that participating in SNAP leads to positive outcomes in homelessness prevention, education and early learning," said Christina Bodamer, Oregon Hunger Task Force member. The Food for All Oregonians bill is a part of the larger Immigrant Justice Package, which includes universal representation, farmwork disaster relief, housing assistance and language justice. Andrea Vanessa Garcia, Food for All Oregonians Coalition representative, urged people to email their legislators to support the legislation. The bill was set to be presented during the Oregon Hunger Task Force's legislative hearing on Tuesday. Alexander Banks is an intern at the Statesman Journal. Reach him at abanks@
