ShawneeDispatch.com

Gillian Williams sees the job she will begin this fall a little like an extension of her job as Hocker Grove Middle School principal.

Williams will become Shawnee Mission USD 512 associate superintendent of educational services. Monday night, the Board of Education approved Williams for the job, a position she will fill after associate superintendent Cyndee Anderson's upcoming retirement.

Williams has been Hocker Grove principal since 2002.

Running a middle school building is a unique experience, and Williams said she knew she would miss working with students on a day-to-day basis. "I'll miss the kids the most," she said. However, she said her new administrative position would be a chance to apply many of the same principles to students districtwide, which she looked forward to.

"It's a lot of the same things that I do, it's just on a more global level," Williams said.

Before starting at Hocker Grove, Williams was an associate principal at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School from 1998 to 2000 and an international language teacher there from 1994 to 1998.

She also completed the school district's administrative training program.

Williams received a bachelor's degree in French from Pepperdine University and a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Central Missouri State University. She received a doctorate in administration from St. Louis University.

Williams and her husband, Rob, live in Merriam with their daughters, 5-year-old Olivia and 7-year-old Isabelle.