Tracey Quillen Carney
First Lady of Delaware
Tracey’s focus as First Lady is to support efforts that, in a foundational way, help give children a chance to succeed. With funding and operational support from Casey Family Programs, she coordinates those efforts under the umbrella of the First Chance Delaware initiative. First Chance has three pillars – ending childhood hunger in Delaware; promoting early language skills; and advancing effective recognition of, and response to, childhood trauma. Tracey seeks to use the convening and outreach powers of the First Lady’s office to bring organizations together to work collaboratively toward those goals.
“When kids and their families face foundational challenges, each adversity deepens all of the others in a geometric – and often generational – erosion of opportunity,” Tracey has said. “So to be effective—and to be efficient— the efforts to alleviate those challenges must also be interconnected and mutually reinforcing.” Tracey likens the coordinated approach of First Chance to the collaborative Family Services Cabinet Council, revived by Governor John Carney when he took office.
A month after becoming First Lady of Delaware, Tracey left her job as a senior administrator at Wilmington Friends after 15 years at the School. Previously, Tracey had worked for 15 years on the staff of then-Senator Joe Biden—both in the District Office in Wilmington, Delaware, and on the Judiciary Committee staff during Senator Biden’s term as chairman.
A proud native Delawarean, Tracey was born at the Dover Air Force Base and grew up in New Castle. She has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors and received the Ronald J. Caridi Memorial Award for scholarship. Tracey and John are the grateful parents of two grown sons.
