Dr. Heather Jane McCarty is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Lytton Center for History and the Public Good, and a Professor of History and Gender and Women’s Studies at Ohlone College. Heather holds a B.A. in African American Studies and History from UCLA, and a M.A and Ph.D in History from UC Berkeley. Her research interests include race and gender relations, social movements, crime and punishment, and the West. Heather began her higher education teaching career in the college program at San Quentin State Prison. Heather’s passion for the community college mission and for working with underserved and first generation college students brought her to Ohlone College in 2006. In 2025, Dr. McCarty started her role as a newly elected Board of Trustees for the City College of San Francisco.