People

Dorinda Carter Andrews is a professor of race, culture and educational equity in the Department of Teacher Education. She is a former industrial engineer, high school math teacher and kindergarten teacher and has teaching experience in suburban, urban, charter and independent schools.

Her research is broadly focused on Black education and racial equity and justice in P-20 learning environments. Carter Andrews utilizes critical racial and Black feminist/womanist frameworks and methodologies to examine issues of race, culture and power in schools. Her research has been funded by the Ford Foundation, W.T. Grant Foundation and Brady Education Foundation. Carter Andrews also works with school districts, universities, municipalities, corporations and civic organizations on how to develop and maintain culturally responsive, inclusive and equitable learning and work environments.

Among many honors and awards, Carter Andrews has given two TEDx talks: “The Consciousness Gap in Education” and “Teach Kids to Be Eagles.” Her insights on racial equity in education have appeared in the New York Times, Education Week and on WKAR, NPR and CNN. Most recently she was named the Educator of the Year (2022) by the Lansing (MI) Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and received the 2024 Distinguished Community Service (Theda Assiff) Award by the East Lansing (MI) Educational Foundation. Carter Andrews’s research and scholarship has been published in several top-tier academic journals.