Cheryl Slay Carr

Cheryl Slay Carr, J.D. is Associate Dean of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business and Professor of Music Business at Belmont University. Carr earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, received a Master of Public Administration from Clark-Atlanta University, and earned her Juris Doctor degree from The University of Maryland School of Law. Her research and writing emphases include equity in law, arts and entertainment and career and leadership empowerment narratives. She has published articles and books, including Music Copyright Law and Music Business Careers: Career Duality in the Creative Industries. In addition to her publications, she teaches, speaks and writes extensively on commerce in the music industry, diversity in the business of jazz, and marginalization in the entertainment industry. She is founder of Minding the Gap, a Diversity in Entertainment Industry Symposium, which facilitates an annual dialogue on a range of equity and inclusion issues in the entertainment industry. Prof. Carr is an entrepreneur who founded and managed her own law firm, practicing law as an entertainment and intellectual property attorney representing a range of businesses, filmmakers, authors, record companies, musicians, technology companies and visual artists. She completed the Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers in International and Comparative Intellectual Property, is a Maryland Bar Foundation Fellow, and an alumna of Leadership Music. She has been honored as a recipient of the Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence award and Nashville Business Journal Women in Music City award. She is an experienced performing artist and producer of Invocation, an EP of jazz-inspired recordings.