As we prepare to close out Women’s History Month, we want to introduce you to a powerful woman named Tenyse Williams.
Tenyse Williams is a journalist, educator, and digital marketing thought leader. She is also the founder and CEO of Verified Consulting, a City of New York-certified minority and women-owned business enterprise. In her line of business, she “leads a team of professionals generating measurable results for clients across all industries, creating strategic awareness-building campaigns and partner collaborations reinforcing executive leadership, elevating profiles, and driving up organization growth and relevancy.”
We spoke with Williams about how she got started in her career, her journey, and what’s next for her. She got her start in this line of work by being the digital marketing lead and media liaison for the Marus Garvey Institute, and because of her work with them, it led to the posthumous pardon of the late Marcus Garvey by then-president Joe Biden in January 2025. “Being the lead and digital liaison for this campaign is one of my proudest moments,” Williams said. “Leading a national campaign is something that can affect generations, and being a part of history is truly phenomenal.”
Williams’ accomplishments didn’t stop there. Going into Black History Month, she put together an event at the Museum of Food and Drink, where she featured Black-owned restaurants and Black-owned CPG startups. The event brought people out from all over to learn about these restaurants, speak with the owners, network with one another, and learn about getting capital, entrepreneurship, and more.
Being in this field wasn’t something that fell into Williams’ lap, she knew what she wanted her career path to be. “I knew that I always wanted to be in this field. As a child I would always get in trouble for talking in class a lot,” she jokingly said. “I wanted to also be in the medical field but I wanted to fuse medical and news and become a news anchor. I always loved to tell stories and would write in my diary and would always document things. So, I knew I wanted to be in this field but I didn’t know how I was going to be in it.”
Because of her dream and passion, it opened the doors for her to put together the event at the Food and Drink Museum. She revealed that she loves strategic partnerships and putting things together. Williams went on to say that the museum reached out to her after a column she wrote where she featured Black entrepreneurs in a restaurant space. “I was retained by them, but I also pitched them,” Williams recalled. “One of the curators reads my column and knows about the publication that I write for, and the whole team agreed that we should collaborate on something in their space, and that’s how the event “Pioneers to Innovators: Honoring Black History and Shaping the Future of Food Entrepreneurship” came about.
While putting the event together, Williams said that she had to think about her audience, and what they would like to see, read, and be a part of. “When I think about my audience and my readers, what they enjoy the most are the questions I ask; they love learning about capital, how to pivot, selling your business, and more. I wanted to make sure that the audience had a takeaway.”
She continued, “Thinking about the people who could tell their stories and where they started and relatable people led me to reach out to Mayisha [Warren], the owner of Chick-fil-a in East New York, Brooklyn, Christina [Thomas] the founder of Brown Girls Beer, and Jasmine Gerald, the owner of Jasmine’s Caribbean, who all had a start-up story.”
Williams’ goal for the event was to make sure that her audience had people that they could relate to and walkaway from it feeling good about themselves and knowing that they are on their journey for a reason and a purpose.
Williams spoke on what’s next for her and she wants to continue her legacy. “I want to continue to educate others, as well as want to continue to amplify small business owners, women in entrepreneurship, and Black entrepreneurship because these things are near and dear to my heart.”
Aside from digital marketing and publicity, Tenyse Williams is also an adjunct instructor at Columbia University, George Washington University, and the University of Central Florida. She will continue to push the legacy of Marcus Garvey with her work with the Marcus Garvey Institute as well as putting things together for Marcus Garvey Day.
Congratulations to Tenyse Williams, and thank you for paving the way for others to follow in your footsteps.