After building the City of Natchez’s Department of Workforce Development from the ground up, Workforce Development Director Tuwanna Williams has resigned from her role to accept a new position at Copiah-Lincoln Community College. Williams will become Executive Director of Workforce Education, effective January 5, 2026.
Williams was hired to create Natchez’s first formal workforce department. During her tenure, she secured roughly $2 million in state and federal funding to support workforce initiatives, developed critical partnerships with employers, and helped establish training pathways aimed at meeting real labor needs in the community.
One of the most notable achievements under her leadership was launching the area’s first Building Trades Program, a step that provided new career routes for residents and helped local industries access skilled workers.
City officials credit Williams with directly improving employment opportunities for hundreds of people. Through job fairs, training programs, and other initiatives, more than 700 residents were connected to employment during her time with the department.
In her new role at Co-Lin, Williams will continue the same mission, but across seven counties. The college position will allow her to strengthen regional training opportunities, build wider employer networks, and create talent pipelines that serve Southwest Mississippi as a whole.
“This isn’t a departure from workforce development, it’s an expansion of it,” Williams said. “The work we began in Natchez is now going regional.”
Mayor Dan Gibson echoed that sentiment, calling the move a point of pride for the city. “Our work with Tuwanna doesn’t end here, it grows,” Gibson said. “This is a proud moment. What was built here has become a model, and now that model is expanding across the region. Natchez should be proud that leadership cultivated locally is now leading workforce development regionally.”
City leaders stressed that Williams’s transition should be viewed as momentum rather than a setback. The systems, training pipelines, and employer partnerships she created in Natchez will remain in place and are expected to continue growing. More importantly, those same frameworks will now serve as the foundation for expanded workforce development throughout Southwest Mississippi.
Williams’s resignation marks not an ending, city officials said, but the growth of a chapter that began in Natchez and is now extending across the region — strengthening economic opportunity while keeping leadership rooted locally.
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