DBU REPORT 18 Sandra Crawford Williamson can be described in one single word: resilient. Through trial after trial, the Lord has molded her into exactly the leader He has called her to be. DBU was blessed and honored this fall to welcome Sandra into the Patriot family as Assistant Professor of Management in the College of Business, teaching management, marketing, and entrepreneurship courses. Sandra was born and raised in a small town near New Orleans, Louisiana. Following high school, she attended Louisiana State University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Communication. Her free-spirited and dedicated nature led Sandra to launch out from her hometown to become a highly distinguished and seasoned executive, Wall Street industry expert, author, executive coach, and public speaker. Prior to her time at DBU, she held many C-suite roles, including CEO, COO, and Chief Marketing Officer at a $3 billion firm. She received an MBA in the midst of all her business endeavors while working overseas. Sandra became self-sufficient, successful, and highly respected. She added one accomplishment after another to her long list of achievements, but sacrificed her relatonships along the way. On September 11, 2001, Sandra’s life was entirely flipped upside down. “The chaos of that day still feels like it was yesterday to me,” she says. As she stood in New York City, the first plane involved in the tragedy of 9/11 flew over her head and crashed into the World Trade Center. “People were running around, panicking, trying to find their kids, calling their friends, calling their family, calling their spouse, calling their kids,” Sandra remembers, “and I realized I had no one to call.” “I thought, this is it, this is probably my end on earth,” Sandra continues. “And I had this flash of emptiness. Everything I had chased up until that point had been about worldly possessions, worldly success. Everything I had been chasing for 34 years was literally blowing in the wind down the street— cash, papers, computer parts. God used that awful day to show me how empty my life was.” As she tucked away the still, small voice of the Lord in the back of her mind, she helped in any way she could that day, trying to give blood, keeping her team together, and weaving past bomb dogs to return to her hotel. Sandra found herself stuck on the island for days. Finally, she successfully bribed a taxi driver into taking her across the George Washington Bridge, out of the city and into New Jersey where she was able to rent one of the last cars available to make her way to her home in Orlando. “As I drove away from that city, my entire outlook on life and the Lord changed,” Sandra says. “I became aware of my mortality and realized that what was on my business card and my paycheck meant nothing.” It was then that she began rekindling old friendships and reigniting a deeper walk with the Lord. Upon arriving back in Orlando, she reconnected with her best friend in high school and college roommate, Judy. Soon after, she began dating Judy’s older brother, Jeff. On April 17, 2004, she and Jeff got married, something she never thought she would do. The Lord was actively breaking down the walls Sandra had put up for so long. Together, Jeff and Sandra began attending church once again. On Mother’s Day in 2005, while pregnant with their first child, Jenna, she was baptized and renewed her relationship with Christ. Jenna was born on August 20, 2005. When Jenna was just a year old, the Williamsons found out that Sandra was pregnant once again with their second child. While at an ultrasound 13 weeks into her Faith Purified Through Adversity Sandra Crawford Williamson
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