Deirdre Williams was born in England but has lived on the island of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean for most of her life. She has worked as a teacher, a librarian and in administration. She became interested in the possibilities of the Internet for networking in the Caribbean while studying for a Masters degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1993. Subsequently her interest became focused on Internet governance, and specifically on achieving equality of access. Currently she is particularly concerned with citizen participation and how it can be improved generally as well as in the area of Internet governance. She has been successful in several courses run by DiploFoundation and has acted as an editor and as an online tutor for the same institution. Since 2002 she has attended many Internet governance related meetings – local, regional and international, both physically and remotely - as a presenter and as a remote moderator. This was mainly thanks to the generosity of several different funders.
