Shawn Grain Carter
- Class of: Col ’82
- Current city: New York City, NY
- Current job: VP of Contract Management & Professor in Fashion Business Management at the SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology
- Bodo’s Order OR Favorite Charlottesville Spot: Egg bagel with sausage!
Tell us your UVA story. What did you do during your time on Grounds? What were your favorite memories?
I was a Disc Jockey at the WUVA radio station and introduced Wahoos to “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang, a “hip-hop” rap classic, and the rest is history. In addition, I was a journalist for the CD Newspaper and a volunteer at Madison House as a “Big Sister” for disadvantaged girls in Charlottesville.
Tell us what you’re up to today!
I’m a VP of Contract Management & Professor in Fashion Business Management at the SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology. I recently created the African-American & Africana Studies Minor last year to expand our liberal arts curriculum for students. Additionally, as a Style Savant and Luxury Brand Consultant I help emerging designers launch their collections. I was initiated in the Theta Kappa Chapter at UVA of my beloved AKA (Alpha Kappa Alpha) Sorority, where community service and political engagement were cornerstones of active leadership. I continue that legacy as a volunteer academic tutor in urban high schools through Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., in which I am a Life Member who proudly helped elect Soror Kamala Harris as the first woman Vice-President in our nation!
What makes you say Wahoowa?
As a charter member of the Ridley Scholarship Program, which launched in 1987 at BAW, I am a proud champion of providing scholarships to underserved Black students. Community service is part of my DNA. As a Wahoo, I celebrate this legacy of leadership harnessed at UVA. Wahoowa!
What’s the biggest way in which you hope alumni can impact UVA?
Contribute our resources and talents to allow UVA to shine with excellence and resilience!
Pick a pillar that best captures your life today:
Invest
Why does that pillar speak to you?
We must invest our financial capital, political capital and social capital in our youth to promote exemplary examples of ethical leadership in our nation and our world.