Carmen was a Colorado state surveyor for nine years and is a former policy analyst with CMS where she taught the national CMS Basic Surveyor Training Course. 

Carmen now serves as a contractor to CMS on culture change projects the most recent being the upcoming 2008 CMS and Pioneer Network co-sponsored national environmental symposium called Creating Home in the Nursing Home: A National Symposium on Culture Change and the Environment Requirements.  With CMS, she also co-developed the Artifacts of Culture Change measurement tool.  She is currently serving on an AANAC grant project regarding The MDS and Culture Change.

Carmen holds a Master's degree in Healthcare Systems with an emphasis in eldercare from Denver University. Her Bachelor's degree is in Social Work and German from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Carmen is a Certified Validation Worker, Certified Validation Group Practitioner, Certified Eden Associate and Eden Mentor.  In 2002, she co-founded the Colorado Culture Change Coalition and she has authored five culture change workbooks for ActionPact, Inc.:

• Living Life to the Fullest: A Match Made in OBRA ‘87
• Quality of Life: The Difference between Deficient, Common and Culture Change Practice
• Building Culture Change Coalitions
• Regulatory Support and Considerations for Culture Change, and
• Changing the Culture of Care Planning: A Person-Directed Approach.

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