Carole Wacey

Carole Wacey

Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs


Personal Details

Carole Wacey is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Carole joined Women Creating Change (WCC) as President and Chief Executive Officer in November 2017. From the outset, she has been focused on evolving WCC to be inclusive, impactful, relevant, and innovative. She undertook an intensive strategic planning process to assess WCC’s history and identify opportunities to meet the needs of a transforming city. Carole has led a comprehensive planning process that has included a historical review, surveys of membership, and meetings with past and prospective key partners. This work led to changes in the organization’s name, vision, mission, and programs. She is spearheading a new direction for the organization that leverages its history of activism to expand opportunities for all New York City women to become civically engaged and create change in their lives and communities.

Over her 30-year career, Carole has worked in the politics, policy, philanthropy, nonprofit, media, and advocacy sectors. She came to WCC to return to policy work in honor of her deep activist roots. Her family immigrated to the New York City area from the UK in the 1960s after her father passed away and they encountered financial challenges. Carole’s feminist mother always encouraged her to stand up for her beliefs, and she advocated for the Equal Right Amendment, social security, and pay equity from an early age.

Prior to joining WCC, Carole served as the Vice President of Education at WNET for five years, where she focused on technology, interactive media, youth development and underserved youth. Carole served for ten years as Executive Director at MOUSE, a national nonprofit organization that empowers underserved youth to learn, lead and create with technology. Prior to joining MOUSE, Carole was the Director of the Interactive Media for Children (IMC) program at the Markle Foundation.

Before joining Markle, Carole was Deputy Director of the Office of Education Technology and Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Education. In that capacity, she provided leadership for the Clinton Administration on the development and implementation of national educational technology policy, legislation, and program development. She addressed issues such as telecommunications, the digital divide, internet safety, privacy, and e-commerce.

Carole is currently a mentor for New York Community Trust’s Leadership Fellows, where she helps cultivate strong leaders to ensure nonprofits can flourish in the future. She is also a member of the Manhattan Complete Count Commission, Women’s Leadership Council, Women in Development, and Nonprofit New York.

Carole lives in Queens with her husband and five-year-old twin boys. She received her B.A. in Economics from the American University, and her J.D. from Vermont Law School. She has also studied public international law at Oxford University and leadership at Yale University. Carole received City & State’s 2020 Above and Beyond award in recognition of her contributions to the nonprofit sector over the past two decades.