As an independent consultant in education leadership, Carmen assists clients to develop, improve, analyze and assess leader preparation and in-service development programs. In addition, she supports aspiring and current school leaders directly by designing and facilitating leadership development programs and workshops and by acting as a leadership coach.
Carmen is the former Director for the Partner School Organization for the Academy for Educational Development's Middle Start National Center. Prior to this role, she designed and became the first Principal Director of the Professional Development Leadership Center (PDLC) for New York City's Region One in the Bronx. She served as the PDLC's Director and managed a United States Department of Education School Leadership grant and worked with the regional leadership team in the district's Wallace Foundation LEAD grant.
Carmen served as a middle school principal in New York City public schools, and developed an expertise as a turn-around principal specialist, successfully leading three underachieving schools to significantly greater success. She also served as the Deputy Superintendent in District 5, New York City (Harlem). Carmen also has significant experience in district administration, serving as Director of School Improvement for District Ten in the Bronx, and Manager of Program Planning and Development; Coordinator of Staff Development and Program Planning; and Director of Training and Staff Development at the Office of Bilingual Education for the New York City Board of Education. She has worked with the school improvement movement since its inception in New York City and continues to believe, and strives to bring into her work, the simple yet powerful belief that its creator the late Dr. Ronald Edmonds espoused: All children can learn.
Since 1997 Carmen has been a member of the faculty of the Harvard Principal’s Center Summer Institutes and she served four years as a member of the Advisory Board for the Harvard Principal's Center.
Carmen is a graduate of New York City public schools, one of the first graduates of ASPIRA, and holds Masters Degrees from Hunter College and Bank Street College of Education. She was the recipient of a doctoral studies fellowship from Seton Hall University where she is currently ABD.