Deborah Faye Carter is an associate professor of higher education in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Carter’s areas of research include the impact of college on students, especially students of color and/or low-income students, students’ degree aspirations, students’ transition to college, and the effects of undergraduate research on students’ major choices and graduate school attendance.
The California native was an assistant professor of higher education at Indiana University from 1997 to 2004, where she also was program chair of the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. In 2004, she moved to the University of Michigan, where she was an associate professor in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education (CSHPE). She was director of CSHPE from 2006 to 2009.
Among her honors, Carter has won the Bobby Wright Dissertation of the Year Award in 1998 from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and she received the Harold Johnson Diversity Award in 2011 from the University of Michigan.
Carter has been a member of and/or chaired several committees in national organizations, including the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).
Co-authored with Angela Mosi Locks, et al. “From When and Where I Enter: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations of Minority Students’ Transition to College.” In Higher Education: A Handbook of Theory and Research 28, edited by Michael B. Paulsen, 93–149. New York: Springer Publishing, 2013.
Co-authored with Sylvia Hurtado. “Bridging Key Research Dilemmas: Quantitative Research Using a Critical Eye.” In Using Quantitative Data to Answer Critical Questions: New Directions for Institutional Research 133, edited by F. K. Stage, 25-35. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 2007.
Co-authored with Edward P. St. John, et al. “Diversity and Persistence in Indiana Higher Education: The impact of Preparation, Major Choices, and Student Aid.” Readings on Equal Education 21 (2006): 359–407.
Co-authored with Edward P. St. John, et al. “Diversity, College Costs, and Postsecondary Opportunity: An Examination of the Financial Nexus between College Choice and Persistence for African Americans and Whites.” Journal of Higher Education 76, no. 5. (2005): 545–69.
Co-authored with Edward P. St. John, et al. “What Difference Does a Major Make? The Influence of College Major Field on Persistence by African American and White Students.” Research in Higher Education 45, no. 3 (2004): 209–32.
“College Students’ Degree Aspirations: A Theoretical Model and Literature Review With a Focus on African American and Latino Students.” In Higher Education: A Handbook of Theory and Research 17, edited by John C. Smart, 129–71. New York: Springer Publishing, 2002.
Race & Racism in Education
The College Student Experience
Access & Equity in Higher Education