Dr. Terri A. Dickerson was the first African American woman in the Senior Executive Service of the U.S. Coast Guard. She brings expertise for equal opportunity and inclusion based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, identity, sexual orientation, and other bases. She has conceptualized and produced many programs that created workforce and community equity and justice.
Her groundbreaking accomplishments include: first Senior Executive Diversity & Equal Opportunity seminar; first Anti-Harassment program; first mobility program for persons with disabilities and medical conditions; first Executive Champion program pairing leaders with employee groups to promote inclusion; first Equal Opportunity/Diversity Awards for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); first Sexual Harassment Transparency Report. She implemented or personally presented educational programs and reoriented their focus toward revealing the Nation’s erased and distorted histories. Assemblies that she staged, showcasing people and events relevant to equal rights and restorative justice, included among others: civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis; Dr. Opal Lee, grandmother of Juneteenth; Mr. Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of President Truman; and a ceremony where the Gold Lifesaving Medal for heroism by an African American serviceman during a historic 1896 rescue, was posthumously presented to his descendants. In 2020, she led equal justice listening sessions. She has collected, researched, and analyzed data that informed decision-making and promoted equity. Under her stewardship, the Coast Guard grew to lead DHS components in performance measures for timely and effective EEO complaint processing. She testified before the U.S. Congress, House Sub-Committee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, scoping diversity and equal opportunity programs.
Dr. Dickerson led the formation of education partnerships and community engagement through school supply distribution, reading, tutoring, academic and art competitions, and mentoring. She served on numerous Department of Defense and interagency boards and working groups, one which implemented processes enabling the full participation of LGBTQ+ individuals after the reversal of exclusionary laws. She spearheaded actions leading to divisive symbols prohibitions. She was the first Black woman on the Coast Guard Academy Board of Trustees. As Institutional Review Board member, Dr. Dickerson gives guidance on protecting human subjects in Coast Guard research.
She has received honors including the U.S. Government Presidential Rank Award, and NAACP Benjamin Hooks Distinguished Service Award. Her previous positions were in industry, non-profit and government, and include American Women in Radio & TV, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the Small Business Administration. She has written articles in national media, and a book on diversity. She is a university professor of peace and conflict resolution with degrees in education, government, and peace studies. Daughter of a WWII Buffalo soldier and a New Orleans public school teacher, she is among students who desegregated Catholic schools in New Orleans.