TV GUEST 10.03.13 CAN We REALLY HAVE IT ALL? Carrie is a learner, a teacher, a mother, a friend, and a traveler. She was born in Chicago and raised in southern Virginia by two entrepreneurs. She began traveling independently at 13 years of age, her first trip being to Venezuela for the summer. Her travels and the encouragement of her parents to do so from an early age have shaped her view of the world and of people, and given her all kinds of positive experiences with other cultures. Carrie received her B.S. and her M.Ed. from James Madison University and the University of Virginia, respectively, both in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She left Charlottesville and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area after grad school. There, she helped to build a non-profit private school and clinic that focused on inclusion and cutting-edge education for all children. She launched her own home business in travel. Carrie also worked at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center throughout the first 6 years she lived in California. In 2005, she gave birth to her son, Owen, and in 2006, she began working at San Jose State University as their Clinical Director in the department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders. During her time at SJSU, the clinic grew exponentially in the number of clients it served as well as in revenue. When the budget crisis hit California in 2010, her position was dissolved, and seeing the opportunity with a nearly-kindergartener, to be near some of the best public schools in the country, near family, and to buy a home for the two of them, she moved back to Charlottesville.
Carrie served as the Director of Rehabilitation at Charlottesville Health and Rehab for over 2 years, growing that program from 3 therapists to more than 20, the biggest therapy team in Charlottesville. She also launched her own home business during that time, took courses towards her Ph.D, and met her significant other, JR, who is also an entrepreneur and traveler! She was invited to speak at the International Congress on Voice Disorders in Luxor, Egypt, in October 2012, and did just that, presenting two talks at the conference, and taking the opportunity to travel to Cairo and parts of Europe afterwards. In December 2012, Carrie left her position at Charlottesville Health and Rehab to pursue her Ph.D. full time at James Madison University. Her current research is in Parkinson’s Disease and it’s effect on voice and speech, and she is also assisting on a project to study the effects of a new device that addresses swallowing disorders. Focusing on an academic career, and taking only a small number of private clients on the side, allows her to focus on self-development and on being a mother, and teaching her son. Carrie and JR will accompany Owen on his first international journey to 5 countries in Europe later this summer. They will stay with friends for the majority of their trip, soaking up the culture and the people, and encourage Owen to do the same, beginning to pass the baton to the next generation! Carrie’s lifepath has taken her to many different places, and more importantly, to relationships with many different people, who could be defined by many different labels, such as powerful, privileged, poor, disabled, healthy, language learners, old, young, religious, spiritual, conservative, liberal, and nearly every ethnicity that you can imagine… but what she is learning is that we are all people, fellow sentient beings, deserving of love and appreciation, and we all serve as reflections of one another to some degree.