Tennessee State University has appointed Dr. Tracey B. Carter as interim director of the University’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Compliance (EDC). In this interim position, she will serve as the University’s chief diversity officer, oversee equal opportunity and affirmative action programs, serve as Title 6 and Title 9 coordinator, serve as TSU’s Section 504 co-coordinator, and investigate allegations of discrimination. She will assume this role on April 12 replacing Sandra Keith, who has accepted a position with Vanderbilt University.
Carter received a bachelor of arts degree in paralegal studies with a minor in business administration from Virginia Intermont College, where she was named Class Valedictorian in 1994. Later, she received a doctor of jurisprudence degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1997, where she made Dean’s List four out of six semesters. She continued academic excellence at TSU, where she received a master of public administration degree in 2005 and a doctor of education degree in administration and supervision with a concentration in higher education administration in 2009.
“I consider it a challenge to take on the responsibilities of this interim position. I am willing to take on such an important role for TSU,” said Carter who previously held positions as assistant director and Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action specialist in TSU’s EDC Office and who serves as an adjunct graduate faculty member at TSU.
“During my 10 years in TSU’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Compliance, I have always served with dignity, professionalism and excellence, and now I have been asked by President Johnson to assume the position of interim director, which I have accepted,” she added. Carter will also direct TSU President’s Fellows Program, serve as a member of the University’s human resources committee and serve on TSU’s academic interdisciplinary committee on access and diversity.
Prior to coming to TSU in 2000, Carter was an assistant attorney general in the Consumer Protection Division of the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, responsible for investigating all complaints regarding the unauthorized practice of law in the state of Tennessee. She has previously served as a judicial law clerk for retired Judge Marietta Shipley in the Davidson County Second Circuit Court, law clerk for the General Civil Division of the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, as well as a summer associate for the law firms of Neal & Harwell in Nashville and Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell in Knoxville. Additionally, she worked as a paralegal specialist with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., and as litigation paralegal for Penn, Stuart, Eskridge & Jones in Abingdon, Va.
Carter has been actively involved both within the Nashville community and at TSU. She is a former member of the Tennessee Economic Council on Women’s Greater Nashville Development District Advisory Council and served as the 2007-2008 president of Women in Higher Education in Tennessee (WHET). She is currently a member of CABLE, the Circle of Sisters Society supporting TSU’s Women’s Center, TSU’s Staff Senate Executive Committee, and Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
Her numerous honors and awards include Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities, Who’s Who: American Law Students, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society, Nashville ATHENA Award nominee, Harry S. Truman $30,000 National Scholar, and Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) Maxine Smith Fellow.
