The Army And The Theater Gave This Kansas City Director Useful Insights Into Diversity

Williams joined the Army almost on impulse ("at that age, you're invincible") and now thinks he probably romanticized what it meant to serve ("you don't think about the body bags"). But the lessons in diversity have stuck.

"Honestly, in the service, I have to say that was probably the greatest socialization experience that I had. Because I was raised in the city," he says. "But when I joined the service, of course, then I met people from all over the country, other cities as well as the rural areas, you know, individuals from the Appalachia, places like that. And these were truly people I did not know."

Relying intensely on one another, while under strict rules where it didn't matter who you were or where you came from, might not have made everyone friends. But it did connect people quickly, on a deeply human level.