V. Celeste Carter served as program director of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advanced Technological Education program from 2009 to 2025, leading one of the most significant skilled technical workforce grantmaking programs in the federal government.
Carter joined the Division of Biological and Health Sciences at Foothill College in 1994 to develop and head a Biotechnology workforce program. She was the recipient of an NSF Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) award, which produced a set of case studies and associated laboratories with biotechnology industry partners.
From 2001-2003 and 2007-2008, she served as a program director in the NSF’s DUE. She returned to Foothill College following each of these rotations to resume her position as director for both the college’s biotechnology and bioinformatics programs. Carter accepted a permanent program director position in NSF’s DUE in 2009, where she led the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program for 16 years, supporting skilled technical workforce programs across the NSF.
During her tenure, she served as the NSF’s STEM Education Directorate representative to the Division of Polar Programs from 2012-2014, and worked on the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative Working Group, leading to the ATE program supporting collaborations across the ManufacturingUSA Institutes network. She served as a co-chair of the FC-STEM Undergraduate Education Interagency Working Group, and supported the National Science Board Special Task Force on the Skilled Technical Workforce and the NSF director on the President’s National Council for the American Worker.
She participated in the interagency group supporting the U.S. Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing, Education and Workforce Development efforts, and was a member of the interagency bioworkforce group supporting the president’s executive order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy.
She received her Master's from Harvard University and PhD from the Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine, both degrees in microbiology. She completed postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Dr. G. Steven Martin at the University of California at Berkeley.