She is a Sarah and Joseph Jr. Dowling Professor of Sociology at Brown University.

[4][1] She is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, an elected member of the National Academy of Education,[5][6] and is currently Sarah and Joseph, Jr. Dowling Professor of Sociology at Brown University.

[8] Carter was an assistant professor in the department of sociology at Harvard University.

[10] Carter also served as the Faculty Director of John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities,[11][12] and the Director of the Research Institute for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.

[13] From 2016 to 2021, she was Dean of the Graduate School of Education and E.H. and Mary E. Pardee Professor at the University of California at Berkeley.