Carol Toussaint, a founding board member for the UW Center for Journalism Ethics and an unparalleled force for good, died in November 2025. We are grateful to have been one of many organizations that Carol supported with her considerable energy, wisdom and resolve.
Carol was an enthusiastic supporter of the Center from its earliest days and served on our advisory board from 2009 to 2019. She reveled in encouraging the work we do, but also asked tough questions, gently pushing us toward greater impact and more substantive engagement with the public.
“Carol was a born connector,” said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics and the UW–Madison’s School for Journalism and Mass Communication. “She helped us establish meaningful relationships in Madison that helped the Center build its reputation locally and engage citizens in our work.”
In her career and community service, Carol was a powerful leader and a generous guide. She was the recipient of many accolades, including the Manfred Swarsensky Humanitarian Service Award from Madison’s Downtown Rotary, an honorary degree from Edgewood College, a Distinguished Alumni Award from the UW–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
“Carol not only helped set the tone for what the Center for Journalism Ethics would become,” said Phil Haslanger, current chair of the Center for Journalism Ethics Advisory Board. “She also was a wise adviser across many years. It was a delight to hear stories from her early days as a UW–Madison journalism student and to share in the wisdom she offered as a community leader. I am so grateful she was part of our lives.”
Toussaint was born in northwestern Wisconsin in the village of Bruce. Raised in a civically minded household, Toussaint came to UW–Madison for college, where she wrote for the student newspaper The Daily Cardinal and earned a degree in journalism in 1951.
In addition to serving on the board of the Center for Journalism Ethics, Toussaint served on the boards of the University Research Park, the College of Letters & Science Pathways to Excellence program, the Institute on Aging, the LaFollette Institute of Public Affairs, the School of Business, the Memorial Union Building Association and the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
“I had lunch with her a few years ago and she reminisced about the fulfillment she found in public service,” said Culver. “I told her I was grateful for women like her who opened doors for women like me. She said, ‘Oh I never broke any glass ceilings, but I like to think I left some really good cracks in them for the rest of you.’”
We’ll miss her stalwart support and her sense of humor. But we’ll always remember the sensible way she got good things done.