To: The Wellesley Community
From: President Paula A. Johnson
Re: Introducing the New Director of Nondiscrimination Initiatives and Title IX/504 Coordinator
Date: September 10, 2021
I am delighted to announce that DaQuana (Dee) Carter will be joining Wellesley College next week as director of nondiscrimination initiatives and Title IX/504 coordinator. Most recently, Dee served as deputy general counsel and director of equal opportunity programs at the University of Hartford, where she oversaw campus policies and responses to sexual misconduct and other discrimination, harassment, and retaliation matters, including investigations, resolution processes, and training of students, faculty, and staff. Dee also served as the university’s designated appeals officer for challenges to ADA accommodation decisions and addressed a wide range of risk and compliance issues.
Previously, Dee served as of counsel at Mincey Fitzpatrick Ross, LLC, where she worked on civil rights, police misconduct, medical practice, catastrophic injury, personal injury, family law, and employment discrimination cases. She is also a former associate in the health effect litigation and white collar and corporate investigations practice groups of Pepper Hamilton, LLP, where she was honored a number of times for her outstanding work, including pro bono work. Dee also worked for several years as an attorney for the Delaware County Women Against Rape, handling sexual harassment and employment discrimination cases.
Dee is a certified clinical trauma and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy counselor and has provided clients with behavioral health services and individual and group counseling related to issues such as sexual assault, race/identity, substance use treatment and education, crisis management, and relapse prevention.
Dee earned a B.S. in marketing from Drexel University in 2000 and graduated from the Villanova University School of Law in 2003, where she was a member of the Villanova Moot Court executive board. She received a master’s in education in 2016 from the University of Pennsylvania.
Please join me in welcoming Dee Carter to the Wellesley College community.
In addition, please note that on August 1, 2021, Wellesley College issued its new Interim Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures. This policy replaces the previous Student Sexual Misconduct Policy and is in addition to the College’s Policy Against Unlawful Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation. This policy change was required by recent Massachusetts state legislation.
Wellesley College remains committed to providing a safe environment that is free from discrimination and harassment for our students, faculty, and staff. The College does not tolerate sexual harassment, and we take any accusations of this conduct very seriously.
Much of the conduct prohibited under the new policies was also prohibited by past policies. The most significant policy change is that the College now offers confidential resource providers for parties involved in or considering a sexual misconduct complaint.
Anyone with questions about the new policies and procedures is encouraged to contact (after September 13) DaQuana (Dee) Carter, director of nondiscrimination initiatives and Title IX/504 coordinator, titleix@wellesley.edu.
