Ask the average layman what lobbying is, you’re likely to receive a vague description that’s mostly colored by cartoonishly evil politicos–mostly White men–portrayed in movies and shows.
Seldom would you think of a bubbly Black woman with a syrupy sweet southern drawl when picturing a powerful lobbyist. In comes Terri Broussard Williams, a Lafayette, Louisiana, native that represents a small but mighty faction of the powerful lobbying community—just 10 percent of them are Black, and an even smaller number are Black women.
“I always start by telling people, you do not need a pedigree to become a lobbyist or to create change in general,” Broussard Williams tells ESSENCE. “If people think about a lobbyist in the context of television, it always has a negative connotation. For instance, like Remi in House of Cards or folks on Scandal, they are always seen as shelling out money or throwing a drink on the table to talk about an issue. And that is not lobbying at all.”
The National Conference of Legislatures describe lobbying as an attempt to influence government action through either written or oral communication. However, each state may have unique elements for what constitutes lobbying, exceptions to the definitions and exceptions to these exceptions. Lobbyists are not simply individuals who engage in lobbying. As an example of one common exception, a legislator attempting to gather support for a bill through the normal course of legislative operations would not be considered a lobbyist. Even when laid out as plainly as that, it’s easy to see why the profession has gotten a bad rap. Broussard Williams is aiming to dispel the misconceptions through heart-led work that’s poised to change the world into a better place.
Broussard Williams has worked with the American Heart Association and Amazon among other organizations in public policy and partnerships—including work that was instrumental to legislation for smoke-free workplaces. But she began her career in the early aughts in television journalism.
Working in TV news was a huge turning point for her. “On the Gore-Bush presidential election campaign night, I, as a morning show news producer, was responsible for letting our audience know who our president was—and, of course, none of us knew,” she recalls. “And that’s what the headline read. That was so much power at that time. I think I got comfortable with making decisions, distilling information, and quite honestly, telling older adults what to do, because I was writing the script for these news anchors that were 15 and 20 years my senior in the newsroom. So, lobbying was a natural progression, but it was one that I never expected.”
In 2002, she found herself out of a job in campaign communications when the senatorial candidate she was working for lost the race. A friend suggested a pivot to lobbying—and the rest is history.
She says it’s relationships like those that have helped her build a career in a space that is largely homogenous (White and male) and can be challenging for a Black woman to navigate.
“There are a couple of things that I will not do, and you can’t cross the line,” Broussard Williams says. “I should say, in my opinion, I have chosen to walk my own path. And I have chosen to create a space of family in the political environment. So, I choose to see everyone as family—and we don’t date our cousins, do we?”
While acknowledging its challenges, Broussard Williams says she recognizes how incredibly important lobbying work can be, even if people perceive lobbying for corporations as bad-faith actions.
For example, while at Amazon as its Head of Social Justice Policy and Partnerships, she helped propel programs that helped underserved communities on a granular level.
“When I got my role people were like, ‘What does that mean?'” Broussard Williams says. “I lobbied to advance issues such as equity on the campuses of Amazon Studios, and I worked alongside Audible and Amazon Music. But I also worked with Amazon Health to ensure that health equity was embedded in its principles. I did some fun work with some soul sisters around ensuring that you can use EBT benefits over the Amazon app to get groceries delivered to your home.”
She adds: “You can’t tell me I wasn’t doing good. What I’d like people to understand is that, as a lobbyist, I educate policymakers on public policy issues and how it impacts their constituents, the communities or states, and hopefully in a manner that will allow them to want to create the change that I’m asking them to make.”