The Board of Governors of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education selected Laurie A. Carter to be the next president of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, effective Aug. 7.
Carter is executive vice president and university counsel for Eastern Kentucky University, a regional, public university enrolling more than 16,000 students in Richmond, Ky. She previously served as vice president for arts education at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and vice president and general counsel of The Juilliard School. She is a graduate of what was then Clarion State College, now Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
As executive vice president at Eastern Kentucky, Carter serves on the president’s cabinet and assumes responsibility for the university in the president’s absence. She provides leadership for 33 departments, including the University Counsel’s Office and the Division of Student Success, overseeing a budget of more than $71 million. She created the Student Success Center and initiated a program for first generation college students at EKU.
In addition to the Bachelor of Science in communications degree she earned from Clarion, Carter also has a Master of Arts degree in communications from William Paterson College and a Doctor of Law degree from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.
Prior to her initial appointment as executive vice president for student success and university counsel at Eastern Kentucky, Carter spent about a year as vice president for arts education at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, where she was responsible for providing strategic leadership, external relations and administrative management of the third largest arts education program in the United States. Previously, she held various positions over almost 25 years at The Juilliard School, considered the nation’s premiere performing arts college.
Carter began her tenure at Juilliard as director of student affairs, a position she held for five years before being named assistant dean for student relations and legal adviser. She also served as associate vice president and vice president for legal and student affairs and was founding executive director of jazz studies at the prestigious performing arts school. She created, implemented and supervised diversity initiatives, resulting in a 10 percent increase in under-represented students and a doubling of under-represented faculty. She created and implemented jazz studies at Juilliard, leading the successful effort to have the program accredited. She also led the planning and design of a $200 million renovation project at the school.
Carter has taught at Eastern Kentucky, Juilliard and Seton Hall University. She also was director of residence life at Fairleigh Dickinson University and a residence hall director at William Paterson. She is a member of the Kentucky and New York State bar associations; the National Association of College and University Attorneys; and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. She also is a board member of YMCA-Richmond and LexArts.
