Date: Jul 24, 2007

HOFSTRA ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR MARY KENNEDY CARTER RECEIVES EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD AT THE FREEPORT/ROOSEVELT NAACP ANNUAL FREEDOM FUND DINNER DANCE

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … Hofstra University Adjunct Instructor Mary Kennedy Carter received the Educator of the Year award from the Freeport/Roosevelt NAACP at their annual Freedom Fund Dinner Dance on May 25, 2007.

Mrs. Carter’s teaching and research at Hofstra is only a small part of her illustrious career in education. She has taught at every level from elementary grades to graduate school. In 1969 she developed and taught a black studies course for the Roosevelt School District, designed for students and teachers. In Rockville Centre she developed a human relations curriculum for 7th grade students, a curriculum on the Holocaust for 8th grade students and in 1989 she founded the club “P.I.N.K./B.L.U.E, Prejudice Is Not Kool/Build Lasting Unity Everywhere” for middle school students who teach prejudice reduction to elementary students.

Mrs. Carter recently worked with Hofstra Professor Alan Singer on the curriculum guide “New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance,” which received the 2005 Social Studies Program of Excellence Award from the National Council for Social Studies. Mrs. Carter has lived, studied and worked in Europe and Africa. In Uganda she spent two years at a teachers’ college where she taught teaching methods and conducted reading method workshops for over 500 elementary school teachers. In collaboration with a Uganda teacher, she co-authored an English reader for primary students.

Mrs. Carter is the recipient of a number of awards, including the National Sojourner Truth Award given by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club, Inc, Central Nassau Club; the Master Educator Award, Rockville Centre School District, and the Detective Sgt Joseph Zito Memorial Award from the American Jewish Congress Center for Prejudice Reduction. In 2006 she received the Nassau Commission on Human Rights Martin Luther King Award. She has been recommended multiple times by her students for inclusion in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, was featured in the 25th edition of Who’s Who Of American Women, and in the 2006-2007 edition of Who’s Who In American Education.  She has served on selection committees for principals and superintendents in New York public schools, participated as an appointed member of both the New York State Social Studies and Review Commission and the New York State Curriculum and Assessment Committee. She has recently been appointed to the New York State Amistad Commission, established to investigate slavery lessons in state schools.

Mrs. Carter is a member and historian of the Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt, New York, and a frequent contributor to community organizations in Freeport where she lives.  She is married to businessman Donald Sr.; has two sons, Keith and Donald Jr; two daughters-in law, Debra and Stella; and 6 grandchildren.