This is Ashley Newby and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today's conversation is with Carleen Carey, a public educator with over 15 years of experience across K-12 and higher education sectors. Before founding Akoma Leadership Consulting, she served as Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Director of Public Outreach and Equity, College and Career Readiness Manager, and Instructor of Record for government, non-profit, and higher education organizations. In these roles, she led a portfolio of programs including Hidden Histories, EEOC Training Corner, Women’s Leadership Lunch, and Community Coalition. In the K-12 sector, Dr. Carey led the transition to remote education for Career and Technical Education teachers through professional workshops such as Race and Ability in the CTE Classroom, Tech Tune-Ups for CTE Teachers, and Digital Download: Connecting Students with Careers. She also taught Human Diversity, Power, and Opportunity in the Teacher Certification program at Michigan State University. Carey currently teaches "African American Authors from 1700-1900," "African-American Authors from 1900-present," and early American Literature at the University of Maryland Global Campus.