Gail Clay, director of the Carolyn P. Brown University Center from 1968 to 1987 and a leader in the national Association of College Unions International, earned the bachelor’s degree from Appalachian State University (1943) and the master’s at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She enrolled in a doctoral program at UT, where in 1953 she accepted a position as a staff member of the university center. She served as chair of the Commission for Women (1983 and 1984) and was a moving force on campus for equality for all women.