Carol D. Lee

Carol Diane Lee (née Easton, also Safisha Madhubuti) is an American professor, educational researcher, school director and author. Now retired, Lee was the Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy, Professor of Learning Sciences, and Professor of African-American Studies at Northwestern University. Her scholarly interests focus on the influences of culture and literacy on education, particularly among students in the African-American community. She chairs the Board of Director of the Betty Shabbazz International Charter School, an institution she helped found.

Lee has been nationally recognized and honored by numerous organizations for her years of service, mentorship, and social activism including the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education, the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS), the National Academy of Education (NAE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), and the Black United Fund of Chicago. She has also garnered international recognition having been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Pretoria and having twice led the American delegation of the People to People's Ambassador Program to South Africa and China.

Lee is the author of Culture, Literacy and Learning: Taking Bloom in the Midst of the Whirlwind and Signifying As a Scaffold for Literary Interpretation: The Pedagogical Implications of an African American Discourse Genre. With Peter Smagorinsky, Lee edited the volume Vygotskian Perspectives on Literacy Research: Constructing Meaning Through Collaborative Inquiry.