Charles "CC" Carter

Office of Student Affairs
Cross-Cultural Leadership Center
Office of Student Life and Leadership
1980–2017

Charles "CC" Carter exemplified compassion, vision, and dedication during his 37-year campus career, leaving behind a legacy of diversity work pivotal for the University’s continued success.

While pursuing his degree in social work, Carter worked part-time as a paraprofessional in the Educational Opportunity Program. Although after graduation he anticipated working with foster youth, helping kids struggling with challenges he himself had encountered, he was hired in 1980 as the University’s first coordinator of multicultural programs. Working out of a small space in the University Center, Carter had a dream of a much better facility and what it could achieve. As he subsequently worked in several capacities for Student Affairs, including Judicial Affairs and Athletics fundraising, he never lost sight of the potential and necessity of expanded services for diverse students.

In 2008, under Carter’s leadership, the Cross-Cultural Leadership Center (CCLC) opened in the Meriam Library. The myriad initiatives taken by the CCLC include African American and Latinx summits; leadership programs, scholarships, and internships; outreach to high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds; and culturally relevant and challenging presentations and dialogues. All of the efforts are done in collaboration with students under the center’s three founding principles: respect, connect, affirm.

When Carter became director of Student Life and Leadership, he continued his hands-on relationship with the CCLC, helping students and mentoring other staff well beyond the eight-hour workday. He also maintains a role in a Sacramento-based nonprofit, the Alliance for Education Solutions, which has a mission of motivating young people to effect change at the grassroots level.

Carter has received a number of honors for his work, including the Outstanding Service Award from the Multicultural Council, Advisor of the Year, Outstanding Black Faculty/Staff Member, and Outstanding Staff Employee of the Year.

When the CCLC celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, Carter was thanked for his tremendous contributions by students, staff and alumni. Erica Flores, alumna and director of development for the College of Communication and Education, said at the event, “To me, CC symbolizes hope and the future because he’s ingrained that into us.”