Sandra Harley Carey

An author, consultant, teacher, and retired U.S. Navy Captain, Sandra Carey earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Trinity University and a doctoral degree in Social Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Carey has taught at UT-Austin, Texas Lutheran University, Loyola University, and Texas State University-San Marcos. She has also lectured at the Southeast China Institute of Science and Technology and at the Australian Institute of Management.

Dr. Carey has been a consultant, with her husband, for the U.S. Department of State, for Arthur Young & Co., and for McDonald Systems, Inc., in the latter case conducting research that led to the development of the "Happy Meal."

During several years in Washington D.C., Dr. Carey worked for both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard. As a civilian, she was advisor to the Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy. In uniform, she was one of the first women to deploy on a U.S. Navy ship, and she served in the Persian Gulf, in Saudi Arabia, and in Kuwait during Desert Storm. As a Navy Captain, she commanded units in London and at the Pentagon. She directed a major U.S. Coast Guard research project and was called upon to testify before a Presidential Commission on behalf of the USCG. She also served as White House Liaison between the military and the Reagan White House.

Dr. Carey's publications include a handbook used by naval officers to integrate women into life aboard U.S. Navy vessels. She wrote one of the first papers on sexual harassment and a textbook on deviant behavior, now in its eighth edition. She recently retired as book review editor of the journal Armed Forces and Society.

Among her many community service activities, Dr. Carey has been Rotary Assistant District Governor; a charter member and past president of the Rotary Club of Canyon Lake; a board member of the San Antonio area Crisis Line; historian of the Texas Breakfast Club of Washington, D.C.; founder of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Trinity Alumni Association; and a member of the Trinity University Alumni Association National Board. She is currently serving on the board of the Children's Advocacy Center of Comal County.

Dr. Carey is a long-time survivor of ovarian cancer, and she is especially grateful for the support she received from Dr. Don Matlock, Dr. Rollo Newsome, and others in the Texas State Department of Sociology during her treatment.