Carol is a licensed clinical psychologist. She graduated from the University of Arizona, majoring in biology and psychology, and completed her Masters and Ph.D. degrees in psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Her clinical skills were further developed while doing a 2-year post-doctoral program at Mt. Zion hospital in San Francisco, where she became interested in the effects of medical conditions on personality, acted as a consultant to inpatient medical units, and worked extensively with chronic pain and cancer.

Following her own diagnosis of breast cancer in 1990, she devoted her career to working with women diagnosed with breast cancer. She has a private practice and has worked in hospital setting at UCSF and CPMC. She is recently retired from CPMC and continues her private practice. She conducts the Breast Cancer Over Time support group and enjoys helping women meet the challenges that breast cancer brings to family life, work life, and self.