Kim Williams-Pulfer serves as the Postdoctoral Research Appointee for the Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. A recent doctoral graduate of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, she completed her dissertation project entitled, "Get Involved: Stories of The Postcolonial Black Middle Class and The Development of Civil Society." Through the methodological use of archival records, cultural textual analysis, participant observation and in-depth interviews, her dissertation carefully traces how these unfolding narrative experiences shape the current environment in of civil society especially within the global south.

Williams-Pulfer was also awarded the Indiana University President's Diversity Dissertation Fellowship in 2017. Her ongoing research agenda focuses on diversity within the philanthropic sector and the role of arts and civic engagement within the African diaspora.