Dr. Karen M. Carty, who has 18 years of experience in collegiate communications and marketing, recently completed her second year as the Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Communications at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, having joined the league office in July 2021.
Dr. Carty currently serves as the conference's primary media contact for football, men's basketball and softball, as well as Commissioner requests and broadcast initiatives. She is also an executive producer with the MEAC Digital Network.
Prior to joining the MEAC, Dr. Carty spent two years at Bradley University as the Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing, Fan Engagement and Diversity Initiatives. She was responsible for the marketing efforts for Bradley’s three ticketed women’s sports: volleyball, women’s basketball and softball. Her other duties included serving as the sport administrator for softball, supervising the Director of Creative Productions and overseeing the licensing program for athletics marks and branding with Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC).
In her first year at Bradley, Dr. Carty’s marketing efforts drew the largest crowd for a Bradley women's basketball home game (excluding doubleheaders with the men's team) with 3,151 fans, which was the third-largest crowd in program history (including doubleheaders).
During the summer of 2020, Dr. Carty was named the department’s liaison for diversity, inclusion and community service programming and events – spearheading several virtual events, including voting and women’s empowerment symposiums. For the 2020-21 athletic year, she was also the advisor for Braves Council, Bradley’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
Additionally, she served on the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics’ Senior Staff, the president’s Racial Equity Advisory Group, the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group and the Staff Engagement Team that was formed during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep Bradley staff members engaged during the transition to remote working.
Dr. Carty joined Bradley from Grambling State University, where she served as Assistant Athletics Director for Media, Marketing and Promotions from April 2017 to July 2019.
While at Grambling, Dr. Carty enhanced the overall branding, marketing, social media presence, and game-day experience for the athletics department. During the 2017-18 year, she oversaw the production of printed and digital marketing materials that won several awards, including one gold and two silver Sports Advertising Awards. The following year, she ensured that all 15 Tiger programs had printed promotional materials, which was a first in Grambling State history.
With the installation of a state-of-the-art video board at the Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium and the construction of a brand-new mobile television production unit in 2017, Dr. Carty was able to create a more festive game environment for football and basketball home games. On-campus football game attendance during the 2017 season increased over 25% from the previous season, while the average basketball attendance more than doubled from 2016-17 to 2017-18 (598 fpg vs. 1,340 fpg). The technological additions also helped to increase sponsorship opportunities, which led to Carty assisting in raising over $420,000 for the 2017-18 season.
Some of Dr. Carty’s additional responsibilities at Grambling included supervising the sports information staff, marketing graduate assistants and undergraduate marketing interns, producing and executing all game scripts for football, basketball, soccer, baseball, softball and volleyball, serving as the athletics department’s primary event planner, and working on the planning committees for the State Fair Classic and the prestigious Bayou Classic.
Prior to her appointment at Grambling State, Carty worked in the South Carolina State athletics department from 2014-17. She served as the Director of Marketing while also handling media relations for volleyball, women’s soccer, women’s basketball and softball.
Dr. Carty was responsible for all the marketing and promotional efforts for South Carolina State Athletics. Leading into the 2015 football season, she used a digital marketing campaign to increase average attendance by 5,000 fans per game, helping South Carolina State to lead the MEAC in average attendance (15,629) in 2015 and rank 10th in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
She also worked to enhance the overall fan experience at South Carolina State athletic events by partnering closely with the game operations committee to ensure everything from the ticket-taking experience to the experiences at concession stands and during the game were enjoyable for the fans. For her efforts during the 2015-16 year, Dr. Carty was named the South Carolina State Staff Employee of the Year, in addition to being the Staff Employee of the Year for the Division of Athletics.
Dr. Carty’s other marketing responsibilities at South Carolina State included handling all of the athletic social media accounts, formulating game scripts for all home games and serving as executive producer for the athletic department’s YouTube series “After the Whistle.” Additionally, she served as the advisor for the Athletic Marketing Internship where she supervised 20 interns who helped to execute all marketing planning and activities. In the fall of 2015, the marketing interns, affectionately known as the “Money Team”, were featured in
STATED Magazine, South Carolina State’s student magazine.
At South Carolina State, Dr. Carty served on the Athletics Hall of Fame, Homecoming, Sports Awards Banquet and Former Athletes Golf Tournament planning committees.
Before going to Orangeburg, Carty spent three and a half years as the sports information director at Baltimore City Community College. She was responsible for handling the media relations efforts for BCCC’s six sports, including media guide production, gameday statistics and record keeping. She also maintained the athletics website,
www.bcccpanthers.com, and oversaw its redesign in the summer of 2013.
Prior to BCCC, Dr. Carty worked in the sports information office at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Va. from 2004-10, and was the assistant sports information director for the last three years of her tenure. She handled the media relations and media guide production for the women’s basketball, women’s cross country, volleyball, softball, women’s tennis and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field programs.
Dr. Carty graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in general business with an emphasis in marketing from Norfolk State in 2004. She was a member of the women's tennis team and was named to the 2004 MEAC Commissioner's All-Academic Team. She is also a lifetime member of Golden Key International Honour Society and Beta Gamma Sigma, an honor society for business majors.
Additionally, Dr. Carty currently holds membership in the National Association of College Marketing Administrators (NACMA) and the Black College Sports Information Directors Association (BCSIDA).
The St. Croix, U.S.V.I. native earned her Master's degree in sports management from the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Ala. in 2009 and was a participant in the NCAA’s 2019 Leadership Education Series in Indianapolis, Ind.
Dr. Carty earned a Doctor of Education degree in higher education administration from Bradley University in May 2023, and she was also the 2021 recipient of the Rudy Keeling Postgraduate Scholarship, given annually by the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA).