News Room

Linnie S. Carter, Ph.D., APR

When Linnie S. Carter, Ph.D., APR, refers to ‘hitting it out of the ballpark’, her clients, colleagues and students know that something very special is about to happen. Carter is a seasoned public relations executive, entrepreneur and educator with a renowned work ethic, where excellence is expected and nothing less is accepted. She and her team routinely hit home runs on projects for clients.

For almost 20 years, Carter has honed her stellar work ethic with roles in public relations, communications, fundraising and higher education. She is currently the president and CEO of Linnie Carter & Associates LLC (LCA), a full-service consulting firm providing public relations, marketing, fundraising and executive services. The company primarily serves institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, professional associations and small businesses.

In addition to running her own company, Carter serves as the vice president of college advancement at a community college in Pennsylvania. Previously, she was the vice president of institutional advancement at a North Carolina community college. Of her diverse responsibilities, Carter says, “I am a more effective company CEO because of my experience as a professor and college administrator. The skills required by these positions are complementary, and I strive constantly to improve my performance in each.”

Carter’s efforts and professional success have not gone unnoticed, and clients continue to give her firm top accolades for its work. A community college president and client of LCA, says, “Linnie Carter and her staff are the most knowledgeable, trusted and high-performance professionals I (and others) have encountered in the public and private sectors.”

As president and CEO of LCA, Carter manages almost 40 talented professionals in delivering premium services. The company provides a wide range of strategic products and services, including:

public relations and marketing campaign development, implementation and evaluation
social media marketing
executive search services and re-branding of executives
fundraising analysis, campaign development and implementation
special event planning and implementation, and
training materials tailored to client needs

When asked about the accomplishments of her company, Carter proudly describes one recent project. “A higher education client had asked us to serve as their public relations department while they searched for new staff. Over a two-month period, LCA produced more than 25 written pieces for the client. The writing we provided was diverse, including news releases announcing special events and new programs and website content that showcased high-achieving students and community award winners. We also created student profiles, features for local newspapers and correspondence for college administrators. Most importantly, the feedback that we received from the client was excellent,” she says.

When asked how she successfully juggles serving as a community college vice president and managing a growing company, Carter says, “I give a lot of credit for my professional success to my mother. She reared her children to have an extraordinary work ethic. She did not try to paint a rosy picture of the world for us, nor did she buffer us from life. She was loving but also insisted that we never do anything halfway.” Carter says that she now lives her mother’s advice daily, dislikes the work ethic and habits of lazy people as a result and believes that her exemplary work ethic attracts like-minded colleagues and clients.

Carter has extensive experience in higher education administration. For four years, she was vice president of college advancement at Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) and executive director of its educational foundation. LFCC is one of the largest community colleges in Virginia, and Carter’s responsibilities were vast, including all marketing and public relations, alumni affairs, Foundation Board activities, fundraising, special events and the college website. During this time, she led many impressive accomplishments, including:

Re-designing the LFCC website with a back-end content management system
Developing hundreds of professionally written and designed publications in support of the College’s strategic goals
Creating an alumni relations plan and the College’s first-ever long-range public relations and marketing plan
Upgrading the Foundation’s donor database to become an income-generating asset to the College
Raising almost $3 million over five years

Prior to working at LFCC, Carter was the director of institutional advancement at John Tyler Community College in Virginia. Her responsibilities included serving on the College management team and coordinating advertising, alumni affairs, community relations, Foundation Board activities, fundraising, public relations, scholarships and special events. She also has been an adjunct faculty member and a public relations specialist at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and a manager of public relations at Richmond Metropolitan Authority.

Carter’s successful professional experience is matched by equally impressive academic credentials. She earned a doctorate in community college leadership from Old Dominion University, and she holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mass communications from VCU. She also earned the Accredited in Public Relations (APR) designation from the Universal Accreditation Board.

A result of Carter’s hard work and professional success has been recognition by her peers. She and her team won the Outstanding Teamwork Award during her leadership at LFCC, and one of her projects was a gold finalist for the MarCom Creative Awards, Direct Mail/Other Category. She also won first place in the Honoring Excellence in Communications Awards presented by the Virginia Community College Association. She has been honored by Inside Business as a Top Forty Under 40 and by the Golden Key International Honour Society, Old Dominion University Chapter.

Throughout all of her professional effort and its ensuing success, Carter has been committed to giving back to her community. Her firm and its associates currently support more than 30 different charities with diverse missions in varied communities. Carter also has been an active volunteer, serving on the Leadership Metro Richmond team and as a member and leader in many professional associations.

Carter and her husband elevated their philanthropic efforts by establishing a nonprofit organization, Carter Scholars Inc., in February 2011. This organization provides financial assistance to academically gifted students with financial need who live in Norfolk, Va.; Richmond, Va.; Shenandoah Valley, Va.; and Greensboro, N.C. These locations are all places where Carter and her husband have lived. She says, “A lack of money should never be a barrier for our students not having access to the academic tools that they need to be successful.”

For more information about Linnie Carter, visit her website, DrLinnie.com, and her company’s website, www.linniecarter.com. The company website also showcases Carter’s blog, In the Loop with Linnie, where readers can glean Carter’s thoughts on a wide variety of industry and academic topics. Any of these sites can also connect to Carter personally, and she encourages individuals and businesses to contact her and learn more about how she might assist them or their organization to “hit it out of the ballpark” on their next project!