Walking into Karol V. Mason’s office as the President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, you’re immediately captivated by the plethora of photos of her time working with President Barack Obama and his administration. Back then she was the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs at the Department of Justice. While her wall of intriguing photos marks a historic and momentous occasion in her life, it also showcases a woman who has been a pioneer and a trailblazer in her own right.
The Long Island native spent almost 30 years working at Alston & Bird, a leading international law firm, where she became the first Black woman partner in 1990. During her time, Mason became the first African American woman elected as chair of the management committee at any major national law firm. She is also the first woman and first African American to serve as President of John Jay in 2017. But if you ask her if she could have scripted the career journey her life has taken, her answer would be a resounding “no”.
“This life exceeds my expectations. I grew up in a small town in Amityville, Long Island and I thought I’d practice law somewhere. I had only met one lawyer in my life, Lawyer Cobb as we called him. He was the black lawyer on Long Island, and everybody knew him,” Mason said. “I didn’t have dreams of what my life would be like I just took every step. When I look back now, I go ‘How in the world did this happen to somebody from Amityville. It’s not like I planned this out. What I always tell young people is to make choices that maximize your opportunities. Each step of the way I’ve been lucky enough that older Black folks that saw something in me, kept giving me opportunities and opening my eyes and that’s why it’s important for me to do the same for people coming along.”
In many ways her time at the Justice Department helped prepare and lead to her role at John Jay.
“When I was Deputy Associate Attorney General overseeing the grant programs I heard about John Jay. I had to approve the travel for the principals of the different organizations. I knew about CUNY, but I didn’t know about John Jay,” Mason said. “The more I learned about John Jay when I became the Assistant Attorney General and worked closely with Jeremy Travis and others at John Jay, it became intriguing for me.”
While the thought of being the president of John Jay was captivating, Mason put it on the backburner because of her work and initiatives at the Justice Department. That was until the Senate Chaplin gave her a task one day during Bible Study.
“I used to go to the Senate Chaplin’s bible study, and he asked us to put something bold and audacious that we could not do ourselves into our devotionals or journals. The first time he said that I was Associate Attorney General, and I wrote that I wanted to be the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs one day and it happened,” she said smiling. “When I was the AAG, still going to Bible study, the Chaplin again said to write something bold and audacious in our journals. I thought since this worked before, I wrote I that want to be the president of John Jay College. In October of 2016, Jeremy announced that he was stepping down and one of my policy advisors said to me, ‘Did you hear about Jeremy. I said yes. He said, ‘but it’s your dream job’. I said to him ‘We’ve got work to do and I can’t think about that now.’ I just felt like it was literally an answer to a prayer that this opportunity became available. So, I went for it.”
Prayer and her faith have been a pillar in Mason’s life. According to her that faith and belief in God has helped to keep her grounded.
“I think that with all the stresses of this job and of life, if I didn’t have that grounding, this job would be even harder than it is. And it’s hard,” Mason acknowledges. “But, knowing that I’m not responsible for everything, that there is someone I can turn to has helped me tremendously.”
For proof of the pressures at being at the helm of an institution, Mason recounted the deaths of two Black college presidents, Joanne E. Epps of Temple University and Dr. Orinthia T. Montague of Volunteer State Community College. Their untimely deaths sent shockwaves through higher education. Adding to that was Dr. Claudine Gay’s resignation from Harvard University, which highlighted the pressures of racism that many women endure.
“I was really disheartened that the struggle is still so hard in 2024. People don’t understand the pressure or how hard it is for us to walk in these skins, and I’m talking male and female,” Mason said. “It’s navigating these spaces that aren’t welcoming and we have this pressure to exceed expectations. I don’t have the opportunity to make a mistake. I just don’t. The standards are different for us.”
Navigating the weightiness of the role that she carries and the pressures that it brings, Mason enlists the support of others to assure her own personal health and wellness remains intact.
“We have a group of Black Women presidents at CUNY that support each other and Glenda Grace in the Vice Chancellor’s office. It’s been a wonderful little community”.
Despite how far Black women have come in Academia, Mason acknowledges that the road remains difficult. While she knows that her path might seem historic to many, she admonishes black women in academia not to think about her journey.
“I really don’t want them thinking about me. I want them thinking about themselves and thinking that they’re no limits to what they can do. Our Vice President for Institutional Advancement has this phrase, ‘dream without restraint’ and that’s what I want them doing and not putting their own limitations on what they can dream or be. And that’s not just limited to women in education, that’s in any case. We put limitations on what we can do, and we shouldn’t.”
