Chad Williams is out as executive director of the West North Avenue Development Authority, the state-created body that invested $21.2 million in West Baltimore revitalization efforts over fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The authority's board gave no reason for his dismissal, saying only that the time was right for a change at the top.
The Banner reported Friday that Williams had been fired, after confirming the move through the authority itself. Board statements described the decision as a determination that “the appropriate time for a leadership transition” had arrived, with officials adding, “We expect to announce new executive leadership shortly.” No cause was cited beyond that.
The Banner's report also referenced an Instagram video that circulated showing Williams in a heated exchange with a local artist, during which an associate of his tried to pull him away.
An Authority Built to Rebuild a Corridor
WNADA is an entity created by Maryland law to manage funds appropriated by the city and state for revitalization work along the West North Avenue corridor, per the same Banner report. Its mission spans housing, economic development and transportation, and it has worked alongside community organizations and anchor institutions in the area, including Coppin State University.
The authority's financial footprint has grown substantially since its creation. State officials announced $11.4 million in state funds for West Baltimore redevelopment in June 2023, according to a Coppin State University release, with plans at the time to award $10 million in grants to organizations pursuing redevelopment projects along the corridor. Williams was present at that announcement as WNADA's executive director, standing alongside WNADA Chair and Coppin State President Anthony L. Jenkins.
More recently, the authority gave more than $6.5 million in its second funding round to 19 recipients — including minority, women, veteran and returning citizen-led businesses — working to improve the corridor, according to Baltimore Fishbowl. Overall investment in the corridor reached around $12.2 million in fiscal year 2025, the outlet reported, with the authority's broader vision calling for entertainment, commercial and recreational development alongside light industrial manufacturing and retail.
Workplace Concerns Surfaced Before the Firing
Separate from the board's unexplained decision, a 25-page organizational assessment had examined employee concerns about leadership and treatment inside WNADA, according to Baltimore Beat. That assessment found that “significant concerns exist regarding psychological safety, morale, and workplace consistency,” the outlet reported, alongside issues involving micromanagement, favoritism, opaque decision-making and professional conduct.
A third-party investigation into alleged workplace misconduct at the authority was separately completed, Baltimore Beat later reported, and was conducted by Daniel Leonard. The outlet noted that board members were expected to continue discussing the investigation's findings, which were expected to eventually be made public.
The board's own statement did not give a reason.
A Pattern That Followed Him From Las Vegas
Williams had led WNADA since 2022, arriving in Baltimore after previously serving as executive director of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority in Las Vegas, where he led a $150 million annual operating authority with 240 employees, per the Banner's reporting. That prior post came with its own history of controversy.
In 2023, Williams was charged with domestic battery in Nevada and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count, the Banner reported. Years earlier, in 2019, the Southern Nevada housing authority placed Williams on six months' probation and required ethics training following a sexual-harassment investigation, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. An outside human-resources firm found no evidence that Williams had violated the housing authority's sexual-harassment policy at that time, though investigators did find that he and a former secretary had an ongoing consensual personal relationship, the newspaper reported.
For now, West Baltimore's redevelopment authority is in transition without a named successor. The dossier contains no official WNADA announcement identifying an interim or permanent replacement, leaving residents and grant recipients along the corridor to wait for the board's promised update on new executive leadership.
