Carol was born on the Southside of Chicago, Illinois, USA. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she majored in East Asian Studies and Religious Studies. She has a master’s degree in theological studies (MTS) from Harvard University, where she specialized in World Religions and was a researcher for the Pluralism Project. She is currently a.b.d. (all but dissertation) from a PhD program at the University of Chicago.
She has been a lecturer in business schools and worked at The Next Women where she was the architect behind the Fempower Your Growth training, working alongside the major Dutch banks and policy institutions to offer an intense program to train female entrepreneurs on growth strategies while addressing the biases of bankers and investors.
Combining these interests, Carol is shifting her focus onto impact investing. As president of The Wominvest Observatory, she wants to highlight awareness of intersectionality and the need to ensure equal access to financial and network capital for all women and their businesses as we shift towards gender-smart funding practices. Carol is an Included VC Fellow (inaugural class), mom to 3 sons and founder of Atomic Spices. She’s President of the Harvard Alumni Club of The Netherlands and an avid amateur soprano and rower.
Carol lectures in Sociology, Organizational Management, Research Methods and Entrepreneurship at numerous universities in the Netherlands. She worked in partnerships at The Next Women, developed the “Fempower Your Growth” Program and recently received an Included VC Fellowship through which she is actively pursuing venture capital opportunities. A frequent speaker on the subject of gender, diversity and inequitable investment practices, she is currently conducting research on the business effect of women’s competing for investment via pitch competitions.
