First Spouse of Delaware earns honor

Tracey Quillen Carney is the 2024 recipient of the Valerie Biden Owens Woman of Power and Purpose Award presented by the Biden Institute in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. On Nov. 14, a crowd of students and community members gathered at the Perkins Student Center on UD's Newark campus for a discussion over dinner led by Biden Institute chair Valerie Biden Owens.

"You have been known as the 'wife of,' but on your own, you are one hell of a woman," said Biden Owens as she sat down to talk to Tracey Quillen Carney, referring to her life's work as a writer, mother, teacher and spouse.

Quillen Carney recalled her upbringing in Old New Castle as an "economically diverse community where everybody knew everybody." She lovingly referred to her father, former Delaware Supreme Court Justice William T. Quillen, as "captain ethics" for his commitment to justice and ethics and for instilling a strong value system from a young age.

She went on to share a defining moment in her childhood when she witnessed her father sustain a critical injury at home.

"It upended my life for a long time. That is a defining feature of my life that doesn't show up on my résumé," said Quillen Carney, who spoke about how this unaddressed trauma presented itself throughout her life and informed the empathy she has for young children.