Richardson is the Assistant Vice-President of Student Affairs and Executive Director of the Gantt Intercultural Center at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. Employed with the University for the past 15 years, she became the first Director of Multicultural Affairs in 1996 when she started the department to ensure developmental and academic success for minority and international students. She also stands to be the first African-American to hold this position at Clemson.

The current Greenville resident returned to Clemson after graduating with a bachelor's degree in business from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She later got her master's at Clemson.

Richardson's success is paramount, having been a part in many essential developments for the design, implementation and the evaluation of services to ensure success for minorities in the Upstate. She has a membership on the national steering committee for the National Coalition Building Institute. Due to her influence, Clemson added an affiliate chapter of the organization to the campus in 1999. She is also the founder and co-leader for the Carolina National Community Building Institution Coalition, which has nine chapters in North and South Carolina.

The lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. is also on the Clemson President's Council on Community and Diversity, the chair and a founder of the Clemson Diversity Administrators' group and is the chair of the Clemson Diversity and Community Planning Task Force, which charges its five-member team to develop a diversity plan for the school.

In her work, she has been able to bring famous African-Americans, including Ossie Davis and Merlie Evers Williams, to Clemson. She states that the Martin Luther King Enhancement Committee, which she is a vital part of, is "like none other that I have seen anywhere else." She takes her hat off to famous pioneers such as Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but adds that there are others, such as Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young, who have also paved the way.

For her future, Richardson would like to help African-Americans gain access to the best equipment, resources and teachers possible. Stating that there is a disconnect when people live in poverty and others live in mansions, she knows that education is the key to overcoming. Therefore she plans to launch campaigns that will attract more minorities to Clemson University.

Along with her husband, Taji and their daughter, Zari, age four, Altheia Richardson will soon welcome a new addition to her home: a baby girl, Akilah, who is due on February 16, 2007.