The Power of Toys to Change the World: A conversation with Dr. Lisa Williams

Dr. Lisa Williams is internationally recognized as an academic trailblazer, founder of a multi-million dollar company, and an award winning speaker and author. Dr. Lisa attained unprecedented success by becoming the first female professor to receive a multi-million dollar endowed chair, the first African American professor to earn tenure at Penn State University, and the first African American to receive a doctorate in Logistics from The Ohio State. At the height of her career, Dr. Lisa did the unthinkable when she left the academic life to blaze a new trail as an entrepreneur.  In 2003, she founded the World of Entertainment, Publishing and Inspiration (World of EPI), LLC. EPI is the classic Cinderella story. Dr. Lisa grew the company from negative revenues into a multi-million dollar powerhouse.  EPI is now a leading multi-cultural toy manufacturing and design firm with a global supply chain that crisscrosses the world from the US to China and other worldwide destinations. EPI’s largest customer, Walmart recently awarded Dr. Lisa the Supplier of the Year Award for her visionary leadership. Working in partnership with Walmart, EPI touches the lives of an entire generation of children through its Positively Perfect Doll Line. While featured in many magazines for her expertise in business, she is also known for her ability to motivate executives, future leaders and audiences of all sizes.In addition to winning numerous teaching awards from major universities such as Penn State, Ohio State and the University of Arkansas, she has been awarded the Outstanding Female Faculty Member of the Year from Penn State University, designated as an “Amazing Woman” by University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and given the Trailblazer Award by the American Marketing Association PhD. Project.