When Linnie Smith Carter, Ph.D. (Ph.D. ’09) crossed the stage at Old Dominion University in 2009 to receive her doctorate in community college leadership, she carried more than her own dreams under her doctoral hood. She carried the hopes of a working-class family from Lambert’s Point.
Sixteen years later, in December 2025, her younger sister, Sabrina Smith Richardson, Ph.D. (B.A. ’97, M.S. ’05, Ph.D. ’25) joined her as a fellow Old Dominion University doctoral graduate, having studied curriculum and instruction. Together, the Smith sisters’ journeys began in the same Norfolk neighborhood.
Their parents did not graduate from college, but they instilled in their daughters a simple, powerful belief: education could change the trajectory of a life. It was presented not as a guarantee, but as an opportunity — one that required persistence and commitment. That belief has now produced two Black women with doctoral degrees from the University.
“I honor our beloved mom, who passed away in 2022,” said Dr. Carter. “She used her life savings to put me through college for my undergraduate degree. Even though our mom lived a good life, she always wanted her children to have a better life than she did.”
And when Dr. Richardson walked across the stage during the Fall 2025 Commencement Ceremonies, she had her proud father, 88 years old, there to cheer her on.
Though five years apart in age, the Smith sisters walk parallel paths shaped by determination, faith and a shared commitment to serve others.
Dr. Carter serves as vice president of college advancement at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, where her work focuses on institutional leadership and advancement. She is also president and CEO of a consulting firm that offers strategic communications, fundraising and executive support to colleges and similar organizations, which she plans to manage full time beginning this coming summer. She also is a member of the Darden College of Education and Professional Studies Advisory Council and Old Dominion University’s Community College Leadership Program Advisory Board.
Dr. Richardson, triple alumna, now serves as executive director of elementary academies at An Achievable Dream, Inc., a nationally recognized K–12 program focused on student achievement across socioeconomic backgrounds. Her path to leadership began in the classroom.
After eight years teaching middle school English, she saw many students struggling to read at grade level and returned to Old Dominion University to earn her master’s degree in reading. She spent the next decade as a reading specialist at An Achievable Dream Academy before helping to open a new school in Virginia, expanding her role from teacher to instructional leader.
In addition, the sisters established a cooperative, Leadership Restores, that serves higher education institutions, K-12 organizations, nonprofit organizations and professional associations.
Dr. Richardson added, “When I walked across the stage at the ODU Commencement ceremony in December 2025, a quote that our mom often said played repeatedly in my mind. The quote was ‘Get your education. That’s something no one can take from you.’ It is a quote that my own daughters hear often from me.”
Drs. Carter and Richardson are proud of their accomplishments, which become more significant when viewed against national data about Black women in doctoral education.
A 2021 analysis using National Science Foundation Survey of Earned Doctorates data reported that only about 4.4% of all U.S. doctoral degrees are earned by Black women.
For young people growing up in Lambert’s Point or anywhere in Hampton Roads, the story of Drs. Carter and Richardson is a living example of what is possible when opportunity meets persistence and commitment to achieve one’s educational goals.
